One of the initiators of the first Peace March and also part of the others. At that time, in 2012, as the owner of Magyar Hírlap, Gábor Széles took the lion's share in organizing the movement, since a newspaper always operates according to the will of the owner. When András Bencsik, Zsolt Bayer and István Stefka approached him with the idea of the demonstration, he immediately supported the initiative and did everything for its success.
"Did you believe in success?"
"I don't claim that I was sure, but yes, I trusted." The movement already had some precedent, the Kossuth square demonstration, in which tens of thousands of participants stood up for Magyar Hírlap, when Gyurcsány wanted to ban the paper. So, yes, I hoped for success, but I also did not expect what the Peace March turned out to be. It was an incredible emotional impact, it was almost a shock and I really felt that I had to bow down before the greatness of the nation. It was a great happiness that so many people stood up for the good cause.
- It's a pseudo-naive question, but I have to ask: will the current Peace March be the same as the first one?
- Yes and no. Regarding its goal, we wanted one thing, to make Brussels realize who the masses are behind, what kind of government they want to replace and overthrow. Now, however, the situation is somewhat different. On the one hand, people must be made to realize that the goal of Brussels is still the overthrow of the Orbán government , but on the other hand, the left at that time was less gullible than it is now. This is the most important difference. The left will obviously not say that they are stronger because there are more deceived people, but the reality is, there really are more. Hopefully this Peace March will make some of them understand that they are on the wrong side. The nation is here and not there.
"I'll never understand why so many people don't want the good, they want the bad instead."
"I wouldn't say he wants the bad." It is simply a matter of the fact that some people, if sufficiently prepared, can be tuned for the worst purposes. How many such examples do we see, not only in Hungarian, but also in world history, when entire countries could be persuaded to do so. Now let's not go into the history of World War II or other similar events, but unfortunately it is a fact that human nature is like that. It can be misleading. But only if there is no one to open their eyes.
"Not a late attempt?" In recent years, blind hatred has gained civil rights on the opposition side, respect for the few exceptions.
"I think it's never too late." It is also likely that hate is not the right solution to hate. This is of course a complicated question, since it is the left that accuses the right of hatred, but we know from the methods of communism and Nazism that they always accused their opponents of what they themselves had committed. So let us not be surprised that while they hate us, they accuse us of it. We are not allowed to enter this street and this is one of the strengths of the Peace March. That he doesn't carry any hate. The participants don't behave like that, they don't curse, they don't make noise, but almost a silent love procession takes place. Not against someone or others, but for something: our independence, our freedom. That's how all the previous Peace Marches have been - and that's what the current one will be like.
(Cover photo: Róbert Hegedűs
