Prime Minister Viktor Orban has found himself in the eye of a rare domestic political storm after his closest aide triggered scathing criticism from Hungary's opposition for suggesting Budapest wouldn't have fought to repel a Russian invasion as Ukraine has.
Balazs Orban, the nationalist prime minister's political director and not a relative, told the Mandiner website on September 26 that Ukraine's decision to resist Moscow's full-scale invasion was "irresponsible" and drew a parallel with the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary that was met by armed popular resistance and then mercilessly crushed.
"Considering 1956, we would have probably not done what [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy did 2 1/2 years ago, as it is irresponsible, as we can see that he led his country into a defensive war, many lives were lost and territories lost," Balazs Orban, who is also a member of Hungary's parliament, said.
"Again, it's their right, it's their sovereign decision, they had the right to do it. But if we had been asked, we would not have advised it based on what happened in 1956," he added.
Some 2,500 to 3,000 Hungarians, mostly armed civilians, were killed during the fighting between October 23 and November 4, 1956, against overwhelmingly superior Soviet troops that had intervened to crush Imre Nagy's reformist government.
Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians fled into exile in the aftermath of the fighting, which came to symbolize communist-ruled Hungary's aspiration for freedom until the fall of communism in 1989.
In a video posted on his Facebook page late on September 26, Balazs Orban said that his words were "deliberately misinterpreted" and that "the heroes of 1956 are national heroes and their memory is sacred."
But his explanation fell on deaf ears with the opposition.
Peter Magyar, the leader of the center-right Tisza opposition party, immediately called for Balazs Orban's resignation.
“With these words, Balazs Orban has humiliated the memory of thousands of Hungarian freedom fighters, hundreds of whom -- unlike Balazs Orban -- were ready to sacrifice their lives for the freedom and independence of their country,” Magyar said on Facebook.
"Orban, the political director of the prime minister, has no place in Hungarian public life after today’s scandalous and traitorous statements," Magyar added.
“The Orban government would hand Hungary over to the Russians without a fight,” the leader of the center-left Democratic Coalition, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, wrote in a Facebook post.
The prime minister, whose cozy relationship with President Vladimir Putin, his refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as his attacks on the rule of law and accusations of corruption have turned Hungary into the European Union's black sheep, rushed to put out the fire ignited by his aide.
In his weekly address on national radio, Viktor Orban said on September 27 that it was important to speak "very carefully and clearly" on sensitive matters.
"Now, my political director made an ambiguous statement which is a mistake, as our community stands on the basis of the 1956 revolution, has grown from it," said Orban, who has been touting himself as a defender of national sovereignty.
Hungary under Orban has also alienated its NATO allies by refusing to join sanctions against Russia and maintaining strong economic relations with Moscow. It has also refused to send arms to Ukraine, with which it shares a common border.