Péter Magyar reads out names of Hungarian martyrs of '56 in response to remark from Balázs Orbán in Parliament

An unusual scene unfolded during Tuesday’s session of the Hungarian Parliament, when Prime Minister Péter Magyar, in response to the remarks of Balázs Orbán—whom he referred to as “the world’s most cowardly Hungarian”—read out the names of the martyrs of the 1956 revolution. Admittedly, given his track record on the subject, it wasn’t the best decision for Balázs Orbán to choose to speak in Parliament on June 16, shortly after the body had held a commemoration in honor of the 1989 reburial of Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs.

Memorably, Viktor Orbán’s former political director made some indefensible remarks in 2024 when he tried to draw a parallel between Ukraine, which is defending itself against Russian aggression, and the events that took place in Hungary in 1956. At the time, he spoke about the futility of resistance and sacrifice: “Precisely because of '56, we probably would not have done what President Zelensky did 2.5 years ago, because it is irresponsible, because one can see that he led his country into a war of defense. So many people have died, so much territory was lost…", he said. Even Viktor Orbán deemed these statements a mistake, and Balázs Orbán subsequently ended up apologizing.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Balázs Orbán warned the Tisza Party MPs that the honeymoon phase would pass, and difficulties would follow; saying that due to this, the tone in which they speak matters. According to him, thousands of students are living in uncertainty because of the legislative amendments affecting the public interest asset management foundations (abbreviated as KEKVAs in Hungarian) in charge of twenty-one universities —one of which happens to be Mathias Corvinus Collegium led by him —thousands of students are living in uncertainty.

Prime Minister Péter Magyar responded by calling Balázs Orbán "the world's most cowardly Hungarian". He suggested that “he who would surrender without firing a single shot, whose sign even in kindergarten was a white flag,” should, before setting off for Brussels (As of July, Balázs Orbán will switch places with Fidesz MEP Pál Szekeres) and starting to speak Russian, commit to memory the names of the heroes of 1956 whom he had humiliated. The Prime Minister then spent several minutes listing the name, occupation, and age of Hungarians who were martyred in 1956. The members of parliament stood up while the list was read out. “Respect for the heroes, Gloria victis”—Magyar said after concluding the list.