Essential Budapest [antikvár]

6 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Recent events in Hungary have been momentous, but its history has ever been chequered: this 1849 print shows peasants in battle array during the War of Independence Budapest, the capital of Hungary, lies at the very heart of Europe, Buda on the left, or west, bank of the famous River Danube (alas, no longer blue), Pest on the right, or east, bank. A busy, bustling city with more than two million inhabitants (one in every five Hungarians lives in Budapest), Buda and Pest together also make up the political, commercial and industrial hub of the entire country. Hungary, despite its small size (in area only two-thirds that of England), is at the cutting edge of the changes now transforming Central Europe. In April 1990 more than 40 parties contested the first free elections to be held since World War II. The overall winner was Jószef Antall's Democratic Forum - a centre-right grouping espousing capitalist values and a return to a more traditional sense of nationhood (the party's emblem shows the ancient coat of arms breaking through the grey mould of Soviet-imposed Communism). The biggest surprise, however, was the strong showing, especially in Budapest, of the new youth movement known as Fidesz. Predictably, this party has provided Hungary with its youngest MP - Tamás Deutsch, aged only 23.