Luís Soares

Dear Viktor, I understand that there is an election campaign in your country, and that this time you are truly being challenged for power. But we do not interfere in your election campaign, nor do we want to become part of it. Sweden and the Swedish people have always been friends of Hungary and the Hungarian people, as you know. We were friends of Hungary before your government, during your government, and we will remain so after your government. We remember when Hitler’s genocide of Jews struck Hungary, and how Sweden in 1944 sent diplomat Raoul Wallenberg on a special mission to Budapest, to save as many Hungarian lives as possible. Tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews survived because we provided them with provisional protective passports and citizenship here in Sweden. When the Soviet Union later invaded Hungary, Raoul Wallenberg was forcibly taken to Moscow and disappeared. The Swedish diplomat died, but tens of thousands of Hungarian lives were saved. We would do it again. We also remember when the Soviet Union brutally crushed your Hungarian struggle for democracy and freedom in 1956, and when Prime Minister Imre Nagy was later executed for his efforts to democratize the country. When Russian tanks crushed the Hungarian freedom struggle, the Hungarian people pleaded with the UN and all Western powers for help. Almost no one listened. But one country that showed deep solidarity with you was Sweden. We opened our arms to your freedom fighters and dissidents. We allowed you to build exile opposition against Soviet communism here, despite our non-alignment. It was not without risk for us. But we did it anyway—because it was the right thing to do. Today, over 40,000 people of Hungarian descent live in Sweden, many of whom are descendants of the Hungarian refugees who came here in connection with the 1956 uprising. They are a well-integrated immigrant group in our Swedish society. Democratic states help each other, then and now. And they stand up against countries that try to oppress others. That is why, just as in 1944 and 1956, we support democratic countries that Russian tanks try to overrun. Back then, it was about Hungary; today, it is about Ukraine. And if we do not act, it could be about another country tomorrow. This is also why we often express concern about the developments in Hungary in recent years. Hungary ultimately regained its freedom, but freedom must also be defended. That is why we question when you go to have coffee with the leader of the same country that crushed your compatriots’ freedom struggle in 1956 and that today attacks your neighbour, Ukraine. Hungary and the West are not strengthened by closing the door to their European friends or by attacking each other and the very things that distinguish us from barbarism — democracy and the rule of law. Let me conclude with some wise words from yourself in 2007: “As kind of a new generation of the West, our message to those younger than we is to stick to a Western type Hungary, not to let Hungary be derailed from its Western path, and to love that Hungary is a Western type country, which means that we believe in the free will of people and in the mutual responsibility towards each other that we take upon us, which are inseparable parts of Western culture. The oil might come from the east, but freedom always comes from the west. And democracy cannot be directed from above, it can only grow from the hearts of people and in this way create a viable, Hungarian life.” Finally, I wish to convey Sweden’s respect for the Hungarian people, and to wish your country a free, peaceful, and successful election.