Ernest Lluch was very interested in the ideas of the Hungarian jurist, scholar and politician István Bibó (1911-1979). He was a resistance fighter against the Nazis and the last minister in Imre Nagy’s government to be arrested when Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian revolt of 1956. Considering himself “the only representative of the only legal Hungarian government”, he then wrote an appeal: “For Freedom and Truth”, which he gave to students in Budapest and to some Western diplomats, before being captured.
A French diplomat recounted it this way: “Nine o’clock in the morning: Mr. István Bibó, Minister of State, unshaven, his coat torn, but with the beautiful simplicity of courage and composure, rings my doorbell. He gives me the text of his proclamation and the letter which accompanies it, which he signs before my eyes and of which he asks me to send the attached translations to my legation and that of Great Britain. As the fighting in the streets of Budapest – Molotov cocktails against tanks – drew to a close, students posted Bibó’s proclamation on the walls. He was almost hanged, just like Prime Minister Nagy and several hundred resistance fighters. He was saved thanks to the insistent efforts of Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India, and spent six years in prison, until the amnesty of 1963.
