Monument to Polish presidential plane crash unveiled in Hungary
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
06.04.2018 13:06
The head of Poland's ruling conservative party has said he hopes a new monument in Budapest - commemorating the 2010 Polish presidential plane crash - would help Hungarians "make the right choice" in parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Jarosław Kaczyński unveils Smolensk disaster monument in Budapest. Photo: EPA/Zoltan Mathe.
Speaking in Budapest on Friday at the monument's unveiling, Jarosław Kaczyński said Hungarians would on Sunday choose "the path to freedom", and that freedom was connected to incumbent Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Kaczyński said that, like the government in Poland, Orban's government was trying to alter the direction Europe was heading in.
Kaczyński said Orban was for a European community made up of nation states.
Kaczyński also said Orban reminded him of his late twin, former President Lech Kaczyński, because both wanted to make changes in their respective countries.
Jarosław Kaczyński and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Friday unveiled a monument in Budapest commemorating the 2010 crash of a Polish plane in Smolensk, western Russia, which killed all 96 on board, including Lech Kaczyński.
The monument was designed by Hungarian artist Sándor Gyula Makoldi. It is entitled Memento for Smolensk and is dedicated to Polish-Hungarian friendship.
A monk blesses the 'Memento for Smolensk' monument. Photo: EPA/Zoltan Mathe.
Zsolt Németh, the head of the Hungarian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee -- on whose initiative the monument was built -- said Memento for Smolensk was an expression of solidarity with the Polish nation.
"Polish-Hungarian friendship is a huge value for both our nations and when we are struck by difficulty, even tragedy, we will best serve that friendship by expressing our solidarity," Németh said.
"The greatest tragedy in the life of the Polish nation since the end of communism was the Smolensk disaster. That is why I deemed it important to express solidarity with Poles and with the victims," he added.
Poland's ruling conservative Law and Justice party is a close ally of Orban's Fidesz government.
Hungarians will on Sunday vote to elect 199 members of parliament. According to a survey cited by Polish Radio's IAR news agency, Fidesz is likely to be re-elected for a third consecutive term. (vb/pk)
Source: PAP, IAR