Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai presented a high state honour to Mark Palmer, who had been the US ambassador to Hungary during its transition to democracy 20 years ago, in Washington on Wednesday, US time.
The prime minister handed over the Order of Merit, Commander’s Cross, to the former diplomat, who represented his country in Budapest from 1986 to 1990.
Bajnai called Palmer “a legendary ambassador whose name will go down in Hungarian history books”.
Palmer was not only a witness to, but an active participant in, the revival of Hungarian democracy, he said.
Bajnai noted that the ambassador was committed to democracy, and supported the dissidents who had been persecuted by police and had later become senior politicians of the country.
The award ceremony was attended by members of Bajnai’s entourage, including liberal Free Democrat parliamentary leader Janos Koka and advisor Andras Simonyi, Hungary’s former ambassador to the United States. Defence Minister Imre Szekeres, who was to join the delegation, in the end cancelled his trip.
