Hungarians in Switzerland look at momentous past and Orbán’s present

Switzerland once took in 10,000 Hungarians fleeing Soviet persecution. Four of them look back – and at the country’s democratic development over the past 30 years. Whenever 87-year-old Vince Gösi from canton Bern travels to Hungary, he visits the square in front of the parliament building in Budapest. This is where he stood on the afternoon of October 23, 1956, demonstrating with other students against the Soviet occupation. Tens of thousands of people joined in. It was the start of the 13-day Hungarian Uprising. The protesters had 16 demands, including free elections, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary and a government under communist reformer Imre Nagy. “Imre Nagy stepped out onto the balcony,” remembers Gösi, who was an economics student at the time. “He addressed us as comrades – but we shouted that we were no longer comrades and we booed him.” The young people marched to the headquarters of Hungarian radio to broadcast their 16 demands. Some entered the building;