© Szegő Péter

Laszlo Solyom arrives at the Sandor Palace from his official residence on Bela kiraly ut at 8.15. His official duties only begin at 10am. Then, the new ambassadors from Lebanon, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Serbia arrive in quick succession to offer their credentials. Before they arrive, the president consulted with his office's foreign policy advisers. The president uses three sources to prepare for his 45-minute meetings with the ambasssdors. "I get materials on the counry in question from my office and from the Foreign Ministry, and then I add my own material," Solyom told hvg.hu.

Solyom, who speaks excellent German, talked with the new German and Swiss ambassadors without an interpreter. Although the president has no trouble with English, an interpreter did attend the meeting with the new Norwegian ambassador. Since it is hard to find interpreters for many languages, most of the meetings are held in English.

After receiving the Serbian ambassador, Solyom returned to his residence. As Zsuzsanna Bonnar, spokesperson for the president's office, told hvg.hu, official events tend not to be held in the residence - it is primarily intended as a place to live.

At 5pm, Solyom turned up with his wife at a commemoration of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia held at the Terror House Museum. The president delivered a long speech after Maria Schmidt, the museum's director. He expressed his regret at the invasion and condemned the entry of Russian troups into Georgia.

The US, UK, Czech and Slovak ambassadors all attended the commemoration, as well as several opposition politicians, including Tibor Navracsics, head of the Fidesz group in Parliament, Tamas Deutsch and Zoltan Balog. hvg.hu saw no Socialist or Free Democrat MPs at the commemoration - although Andras Lederer, head of the Free Democrats' youth organisation was present.

The commemoration lasted until 17.49. Then, the persident went with the Czech and Slovak ambassadors to the Czech Centre, only a few minutes from the House of Terror, for another commemoration. Here, both ambassadors gave speeches in Hungarian - a real challenge for the Slovak ambassador, whose knowledge of Hungarian is minimal. The two ambassadors gave medals to three elderly people. They had opposed the invasion in 1968. After this, Laszlo Solyom listened to a performance by the Ensemble Martinu, a Czech chamber orchestra. The concert included works by Haydn, Beethoven, Rossini and Otmar Macha. A reception followed the concert, but the president did not attend, preferring to return to his residence with his wife.

Péter Szegő