The March for Life

Sunday afternoon, a crowd of more than ten thousand people gathered in Budapest for the annual March for Life. The event is organized every year since 2002 to pay tribute to the victims of the Hungarian Holocaust in World War II. The organizers said the said the purpose of the March is to teach the lessons of the Holocaust and to send the message “never again” to future generations.

Politicians and other public figures joined the march in great numbers, including Gordon Bajnai and Ferenc Gyurcsány ex-prime ministers. The march was launched by Ninth District Fidesz mayor János Bácskai and Socialist MP Péter Kiss. As the organizers explained that traditionally, if the major of Budapest is not present, one politician from the government, and one from the opposition launches the march, together. The reason why the mayor, István Tarlós, did not attend is possibly to avoid tension. Tarlós had a controversial role in the scandal around changing the director of New Theatre in Budapest to György Dörner, who is known for his anti-semitism, as he was the one appointing the new director. Surely, having him launch the march would have been rather awkward.

Like previous years, once again the crowd carried flags instead of torches: Hungarian, Swedish, Israeli, and EU flags were lifted. At the end of the march, 600 white balloons were let go, to commemorate the 600 000 Hungarian victims of the Holocaust.