Hungary to unveil statue of late President George H W Bush

A statue of former US President George H W Bush will be unveiled in October in Budapest's Liberty Square, officials said on Sunday.

A statue of former US President George H W Bush will be unveiled in October in Budapest's Liberty Square, officials said on Sunday. In 1989, Bush became the first sitting US president to visit Hungary. He died in 2018 at the age of 94.

The statue, to be inaugurated on October 23, "expresses our mutual appreciation and gratitude for the statesman, who contributed to shaping the future of Europe and within Hungary through his commitment and strong morals, and through his advocacy for democracy and against communist dictatorship," said a joint statement from US Ambassador David B Cornstein and Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff. The statue of the 41st US president is being created by Hungarian sculptor Istvan Mate, whose larger-than-life statue of former President Ronald Reagan was unveiled in Liberty Square in June 2011.

"It is fitting that the statue will be located close to that of US President Ronald Reagan in Budapest, which will symbolise the joint fight of these two leaders to defeat, in President Reagan's words, the 'evil empire,'" the officials' statement added. Liberty Square is surrounded by several key institutions, including the National Bank of Hungary, the US Embassy and a huge building which housed Hungary first stock exchange during the first half of the 20th century.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)