Twenty Years Later: The Kónya-Pető Debate

Arguments pro and con retroactive justice

Twenty years ago, on November 16, 1991, the Hungarian Television broadcast the debate between Imre Kónya, parliamentary faction head of the senior ruling party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, and Iván Pető, his counterpart in the main opposition party, the Alliance of Free Democrats, on the possibility of achieving justice with regard to the crimes committed by the communist dictatorship.

The debate attracted much attention and escalated into a political scandal. Without doubt, the event can be considered as a turning point in the barely two-year history of Hungarian democracy, which significantly influenced the dynamics of political processes in the country during the next two decades. Over twenty years since the fall of the one-party dictatorship, the issue of justice has been brought up again: the Hungarian Parliament is currently debating a bill on retroactive legislation.

The program of the public event in OSA Archives:

- Excerpts from the then TV recording of the Kónya-Pető debate will be screened

- Our guests Imre Kónya and Iván Pető will comment on the footage. The moderator will be Krisztina Bombera.

- Justice and regime-change. Invited speakers: Ferenc Horkay Hörcher, professor at the Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Sándor Révész, journalist for Népszabadság and Krisztián Ungváry historian at the The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

- After the speeches, the audience is invited to raise questions and comments.

Venue: OSA Archívum, Budapest, V. ker. Arany János u. 32.

Date and time: November 21, 2011, 6 pm

The full recording of the debate is available here.

Background material (in Hungarian) from a 1990 conference on retroactive justice organized by ELTE BTK is available here.