PHOTOS: Huge protest in Budapest downtown against Orbán cabinet, MP Hadházy calls for obstructing traffic
If the government refuses to acknowledge tens of thousands demanding something for weeks, then civil disobedience is needed to express that demand, independent lawmaker Ákos Hadházy said in downtown Budapest on Tuesday.
MP Hadházy: assembly and transparency amendments must be withdrawn
Addressing a demonstration demanding the withdrawal of an amendment to the assembly law and the bill on the transparency of public life, Hadházy said “there’s no better explanation for why we had to protest on the bridge and why every week we have to march in a way that we disrupt traffic as much as we can.”
“This is our job again today,” he said, adding that they wanted to disrupt traffic so that “the powers that be can’t silence our will”.
We won’t stop, Hadházy warned:
“There’s a chance for there to be real civil disobedience, disruption … and a shutdown of the country, but for that we have to feel our own strength first,” the MP said, adding that the demonstrations of the past weeks had been “very good” in serving that purpose.
They will continue to protest
Hadházy said the Tuesday protests would continue throughout the summer, adding that “we can’t stop … since they haven’t withdrawn the techno-fascist law or the law on making [the operation of NGOs] impossible.”
He said it was because of the protests that parliament had held off on passing the law on the transparency of public life and that “in the recent weeks and months, the opposition is finally talking about how the powers that be may rig the election even more than before”.
Writer and musical artist Tamas Gimpel said there was “self-censorship” in Hungary, and the Tuesday demonstrations would only end “300 days from now”.
More speeches and traffic blocks
Gáspár Békés of the Association for a Sustainable Democracy said he was not protesting to oust the government but rather to show that it had an opposition, “so that they won’t think that we’ve been broken, that we’re tired and we’re gone”.
Internal physician and psychologist Ágnes Valló told the protesters not to be “poisoned by hatred for their opponents”, but rather to try to “understand and forgive them”.
After the speeches, Hadházy asked the protesters to continue the protest in front of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office before walking to Parliament.
At 7pm the protesters headed from Ferenciek Square to Elisabeth Bridge, blocking traffic there for about 20 minutes before heading back towards Astoria where police got them to move back to the sidewalk. When they arrived at the building of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Hadházy addressed the demonstrators again, saying that they had to continue protesting.
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