Von der Leyen, Costa and Macron to attend Budapest uprising commemoration
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar will host the ceremony marking 70 years since the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Budapest for Hungary’s commemoration of the 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.
The visit comes after Magyar’s Tisza Party won power in April. His government has promised to resolve longstanding disagreements with Brussels and return Hungary to the European mainstream.
Magyar’s administration has designated Russia a security threat and agreed to open four negotiating clusters for Ukraine’s accession to the EU. His predecessor, Viktor Orbán, repeatedly obstructed EU measures supporting Ukraine, resisted military and financial aid to Kyiv and kept close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Magyar said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had received an invitation but was unlikely to attend. The prime minister said he had invited every European leader apart from Putin. A complete attendance list has not been made public.
Von der Leyen last visited Hungary in 2024 for a European Political Community summit in Budapest. The anniversary recalls protests begun by Hungarian students on 23 October 1956 against Soviet occupation, which developed into a wider uprising before being suppressed by the Red Army.
