Demonstrators in Budapest demand “a European Hungary”

Budapest (MTI) – A few thousand demonstrators gathered in Budapest on Sunday afternoon for an event dubbed Spring Comes – Orban Goes! – Demonstration for a European Hungary.

The demonstration near the parliament building was organised by the Hundred Thousand Against the Internet Tax and the 60,000 for their Private Pensions Facebook groups.

Balazs Gulyas, an activist of the Hundred Thousand Against the Internet Tax group, told the crowd that as a result of demonstrations, those in power have backed off in several areas.

It is partly thanks to these demonstrations that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not be expected to buy a motorway sticker when she travels from the airport to Budapest on Monday, he said referring to recent protests against the new motorway sticker system.

Gulyas said the small railway of Felcsut is more important today than the refurbishment of the third metro line or the disintegrating tunnel at Budapest’s southern railway station. He noted that in 1946, the republic was declared on this day, which was then discontinued as a result of Soviet influence based on the power of the Red Army and a network of KGB spies.

“And today Russia is ruled by a former KGB spy, and Viktor Orban is driving Hungary into dependence on this KGB spy. Viktor, we do not want to become the merriest barrack of Rosatom and Gazprom,” he said.

Hungarian Solidarity Movement leader Sandor Szekely said Orban has been able to rise to power by making use of the pre-2010 left-liberal governments’ elitism and economic and social blindness. And they failed to notice that they were not battling with a political opponent but with a “gang of criminals that wants to take possession of the entire country”.

Philosopher Agnes Heller said dictatorships can flourish when the citizens do not engage in politics, “if they only fulfill orders and cower … but do not do anything to better their lives.”

She called on people to come together, discuss public matters and realise that the future of the country depends on them.

Media expert Ferenc Hammer, member of the Education Network, said the current system is wasting a common future because for instance the expansion of the Paks nuclear power station will have to be paid for “even by our grandchildren”. Any democratic force must have one plan at the moment and that is how Fidesz can be ousted, he added.

The participants at the demonstration waved European Union and Hungarian flags, as well as national flags showing the 12 European Union stars in the middle.

They held placards reading “Don’t steal, don’t cheat, don’t lie because the government will not put up with competitors” and similar statements.

In one corner of the square, a small group of anti-EU demonstrators were waving Arpad-stripe flags.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters