Police remove protesters against construction in City Park

Budapest, June 28 (MTI) – Budapest police BRFK removed 33 activists from a construction site at the City Park and detained one person on Tuesday.

BRFK said in a statement that the protesters had pulled down a cordon and entered the site to stage a demonstration, but the event “lost the character of a peaceful gathering as defined in the constitution”.

Városliget Zrt., the company in charge of the contested Liget project aimed at building a new museum complex in the popular park, said in a statement that a “rowdy group of protesters attacked the site” and “climbed illegally” on top of a building deemed for demolition.

The protest “jeopardised the artefacts of a national collection”, Városliget said, referring to the collections of the Transport Museum, the building to be pulled down, Városliget said in their statement. They noted their commitment to “avoiding that anybody should be harmed during the demolition works” and argued that putting up a cordon and employing security guards had “exclusively served that purpose”.

Earlier in the day, police had detained several protesters including a municipal representative.

The opposition LMP and Democratic Coalition (DK) parties voiced support for what they see an illegal development project. DK demanded an investigation into alleged violence by security guards and police “siding with the thugs” during a protest on Sunday.

Photo: MTI

Source: mtva.hu