A
statue of Winston Churchill was unveiled today in Budapest's City
Park in an alley that now bears the late British statesman's name.
Attending the ceremony were Mr. Churchill's daughter, Lady Mary Soames, historian John Lukács, Foreign Minister László Kovács,
Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky, and British Ambassador to Hungary Nigel
Thorpe.
"The
fact that [Churchill] is dead is unimportant because we'll all pass
away. Sir Winston Churchill, however, has not left us - he lives on
wherever free people live," said Lady Soames in her speech delivered
at the unveiling ceremony. She added that the unveiling of the statue
and the naming of the street show that Hungary is now back in the
mainstream of history. According to Mayor Demszky, Budapest is
honoring the greatest statesman of the free world in the 20th century,
who symbolized hope and the promise of freedom in the 1950s for the
people of Budapest. Mr. Demszky said it was thanks in part to Mr.
Churchill's policies that Hungary was finally liberated from under
Nazi and Soviet oppression.
Mr.
Kovács said Mr. Churchill, to his mind, "was not a politician but a
statesman whose commitment to democracy was exemplary, and who bore
victory, success, defeat and failure with equal grace."
The
idea for the statue originated with Hungarian-American historian John
Lukács and was supported by Foreign Minister Kovács, Mayor Demszky,
Minister of Culture István Hiller, Ambassador Thorpe and Nobel-prize
winner György Oláh. The statue is the work of the renowned sculptor
Imre Varga. Churchill Alley is close to George Washington and Olof
Palme Alleys in Budapest’s recreational center, City Park.
