NEWS

27/02/2024

14:07

Tusk:

The Visegrad Group Has Exceptionally Solid Foundations. At its birth was a common resistance against the Soviet empire

Michał Olech

The Visegrad Group has exceptionally solid foundations. Somewhere at the birth of this group was a common resistance against the Soviet empire and the presence of Russian troops in our countries. We all remembered, personally or historically, that extraordinary solidarity between our nations. Be it the Hungarian October of 1956, where József Antall was one of the leaders, where Poles donated blood to Hungarian insurgents, or the Prague Spring, or Solidarity with Lech Wałęsa at its head. We all remember how important for this friendship, for these lasting relations between Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs, and Poles, were these fundamental values, and they truly founded the Visegrad format – stated Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a press conference of the V4 prime ministers in Prague. I am also very moved by the present and past of our relations and the future of the Visegrad Group. I care greatly that, in a few months, I will be taking over the presidency of the Visegrad Group from Petr, and that we all remember with such tenderness what lay at the foundation of the group. Viktor Orbán knows well that he has been written into my memory with his famous first speech, when he said he would gladly vote for a government whose first task would be to remove Soviet troops from Hungary, from Budapest. That was in 1989. We all had similar dreams then, and I hope that nothing has truly changed in us – he continued.

Michał Olech