HUNGARY 1956 - 2021

YouTube premiere
FROM KREISKY'S LIVING ROOM

On the 65th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising in autumn 1956

Cathrin Kahlweit in conversation with Paul Lendvai
HUNGARY 1956 - 2021

On 23 October 1956, a demonstration by students in Budapest triggered a popular uprising against the communist system in Hungary. The Soviet army brutally crushed the uprising on 4 November 1956. 3,000 people were killed, tens of thousands were wounded and around 200,000 fled westwards. Paul Lendvai, born in Budapest in 1929, was a journalist at the time (although he was banned from his profession) and experienced those dramatic days at first hand. He was able to leave Hungary in January 1957 and has lived as a journalist and author in Vienna ever since. The hopes of a peaceful transition to a multi-party system, democracy and freedom, which had been crushed by Soviet tanks, were only to be fulfilled for the Hungarians with the collapse of the communist „Eastern bloc“ in 1989/1990. Hungary's first free parliamentary elections since 1947 were held in March 1990. Hungary became a member of NATO in 1999 and of the European Union in 2004. In May 2010, Viktor Orbán became prime minister for the second time (after 1998-2002) and, supported by the right-wing alliance Fidesz-KDNP with a 2/3 majority, began to transform Hungary's state system according to his own ideas. In July 2021, the European Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Hungary (and Poland) in connection with the protection of fundamental rights.

Cathrin Kahlweit talks to Paul Lendvai about Hungary's path since those dramatic weeks in autumn 1956 and his assessment of the development of democracy and the rule of law in our neighbouring country.

Paul Lendvai is head of the ORF European Studio, a columnist for Der Standard and the author of 17 successful non-fiction books. He was editor-in-chief of the European Review, correspondent for the Financial Times, editor-in-chief of ORF's Eastern Europe desk and director of Radio Österreich International.

Cathrin Kahlweit is a correspondent for Central and Eastern Europe for the Süddeutsche Zeitung

Paul Lendvai's standard work The Hungarians was published in August 2020 in an updated, expanded new edition by Ecowin-Verlag (ISBN-13 9783711002662). His book Orban's Hungary, for which he was awarded the European Book Prize in 2018, was also published in an updated new edition in January 2021 by Kremayr&Scheriau (ISBN 978-3-218-01261-4).