(6 Apr 2018) Hungarian and Polish leaders on Friday unveiled a memorial in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, dedicated to the victims of a 2010 plane crash in the Russian city of Smolensk that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other top Polish officials.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's governing Law and Justice party and twin brother of the president who died in the crash, praised the memorial as a "beautiful gesture that strengthens our friendship."
The 10 April 2010, crash that killed 96 people, including the president and the first lady, the head of the National Bank of Poland, lawmakers, top military officials and many others, is considered one of Poland's greatest national tragedies.
Kaczynski, whose right-wing leadership is close to the nationalist and populist policies of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, urged Hungarians to vote for Orban in Sunday's elections.
"You cannot think about Europe's future, the European Union's future, without thinking about Viktor Orban, about Fidesz," he said.
Orban and Kaczynski frequently complain about what they see as meddling by the EU leadership in their national affairs.
A dispute over changes in Poland's court system seen curtailing judicial independence has triggered for the first time an EU sanctioning procedure, Article 7, which could strip Poland of its voting rights within the bloc.
Orban, whose re-election campaign is heavily based on anti-migration policies, said it was up to the two countries to keep Central Europe "national and Christian."
"With all due modesty, I must say that 27 years ago we said, 'Europe is our future,'" Orban told the small crowd at the unveiling. "Today, we can say, 'We are Europe's future.'"
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