A protest to express solidarity with the Central European University, organised by the Momentum Movement, was held with over 1,000 participants in central Budapest on Friday.
As we wrote before, the Central European University (CEU) has said that unless the university can emerge from its current legal limbo in Hungary by December 1, the new student intake for its American accredited masters and doctoral programmes will study at the CEU’s new campus in Vienna. Read more HERE.
Independent lawmaker Bernadett Szél told the event that the government “is afraid of knowledge” and has a problem with the CEU because the university teaches people to think independently instead of “regurgitating ready-made answers”.
Those in power have named the “Soros network” as an enemy, yet such a network does not even exist,
Jobbik press release said, Jobbik has achieved its goals set for 23 October and got the message through: we don’t want to live in a dictatorship, said Tamás Pintér.
Jobbik was the only one to keep its word and step on the path of real resistance on 23 October,
stated Tamás Pintér in his press conference on Wednesday. He referred to the video recorded at the party’s official event when they presented their latest political acts (including putting a padlock on Chief Prosecutor Péter Polt’s house).
“Jobbik has once again proved that we are the Orbán regime’s only efficient opposition with a real force,” this is how Tamás Pintér described the party’s spontaneous protest held at the central office of the public media. He expressed his view that
“the resistance against this Bolshevik government must begin with an intellectual freedom fight”.
Recalling the events, he said about 100-150 policemen were waiting for them at the Kunigunda Street office of the state television. Several demonstrators were requested to show their IDs. There was another protest held at the central office. When it began, the Jobbik supporters marched over to Fidesz’s Lendvay Street office. There were 3-4 policemen for each demonstrator there. The officers wanted to identify each and every protester on suspicion of committing a criminal act but since they were unable to concretely define the charges, they eventually decided to disperse the blockade instead, the politician explained.
“In light of Jobbik’s actions, the passivity of the fake left and the self-proclaimed radicals clearly shows that they are part of the Orbán regime,”
Mr Pintér suggested. According to the politician, Jobbik proved yesterday that they were worthy of the legacy of 1956 revolutionary Gergely Pongrátz, who assisted the party’s foundation in 2003, and taking the streets back was just the beginning. Responding to a media question as to how they were going to continue, he said: “you will see”.
Mr Pintér also told the journalists about what happened on Tuesday evening after the event.
Some policemen suddenly appeared out of nowhere and wanted to check the identity of Jobbik representatives coming to the scene by underground from the head office of the governing party. Tamás Pintér said the policemen told them they were looking for the organizers of the Lendvay Street flash mob. “But that event had no organizer,” he noted. He also revealed that Jobbik MPs were followed by a plain-clothes policeman who they spotted on the underground after a while but they didn’t know why he was following them.
The MP was also asked some questions about boycotting the public media, which MP Ádám Mirkóczki suggested to the opposition MPs in this week. Mr Pintér explained that
they were obliged to answer all questions from the media, but Fidesz’ propaganda machine, which is funded by billions of the taxpayers’ money, has been way out of line.
However, Jobbik will still continue to answer the state media’s questions at the Anti-Defamation Press Conference each Friday.
Thousands gathered in central Budapest to express solidarity with the Central European University, in a demonstration staged by the Momentum Movement, on Friday.
Momentum leader András Fekete-Győr told the crowd that the government “wants to expel CEU from Hungary” because Prime Minister Viktor Orban “is terrified of all those that have thoughts”. He gave the prime minister until December 1 “to take his dirty, corrupted hands off the university” and called on Hungarians “to defend what belongs to them”.
The CEU has said that unless the university can emerge from its current legal limbo in Hungary by December 1, the new student intake for its American accredited masters and doctoral programmes will study at the CEU’s new campus in Vienna(details).
Michael Ignatieff, the CEU’s president and rector, told a news conference in Budapest on Thursday that the decision by the institution’s board of trustees will come into effect on December 1, though, he added, hopefully a solution to the stand-off was still possible to ensure that courses continue in Hungary.
But if a solution is not found, the CEU will move to Vienna “given we cannot continue to operate legally in Budapest,” he said.
Ruling Fidesz said in a statement that Momentum “promotes the interests of businessman George Soros”. They argued that politicians of the opposition are backed by the US billionaire and “they are now paying their gratitude in front of the Soros university”. The statement added that the CEU “is operating undisturbed” and the “hysteria around it is but a political ploy”.
Opposition parties and civil groups staged a demonstration in Budapest’s Bem József Square on Tuesday calling for Hungary to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).
Independent MP Ákos Hadházy, the organiser of the demonstration, said that if the opposition managed to collect one million signatures in support of a campaign aimed at getting Hungary to join the EPPO, the government would agree to join.
He said this would not result in the suspension of the transfer of European Union funds to Hungary, but would instead drive back corruption.
Hadházy announced that opposition and civil activists would soon start collecting signatures for the suspension of home evictions.
Péter Márki-Zay, the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, said the “Orbán regime” could only be ousted if the opposition joined forces. “We’ll need 3,200 Hódmezővásárhelys in order to defeat the party-state in next year’s local elections,” he said, referring to the opposition cooperation that allowed him to win the city’s interim mayoral election in February.
Tamás Harangozó of the Socialist Party said the European prosecutor’s office would be used by the opposition as a weapon “in the freedom fight against the Orbán regime” before it leads the country to a dead end.
Párbeszéd MEP Benedek Jávor said the government, which he called a “thief regime”, was turning Hungary away from the EU for its self-enrichment.
Photo: MTI
Democratic Coalition board member Judit Földi urged the elimination of the consequences of “destruction caused by the Orban regime” and called for the creation of a liveable Hungary.
At the event, Anna Donáth, a deputy leader of the opposition Momentum Movement, reassured the campaign of her party’s support.
The demonstration was attended by a few hundred people.
Following the demonstration at Bem József Square, some two hundred protesters headed over to the Budapest headquarters of Hungarian public broadcaster MTVA to demonstrate in support of independent news coverage.
In a speech in front of the HQ, Hadházy said a “disinformation-filled dictatorship, or demagoguery” was the best way to describe the current state of affairs in Hungarian media. He said the April general elections had been “rigged”, and therefore the current parliament was illegitimate.
A few hundred people gathered in Kossuth Square in front of Parliament and were addressed by a number of celebrated Hungarian writers.
The law amendment comes into force on Monday.
At the demonstration organised by the activist group The City is for Everyone (A Város Mindenkié), Márta Erdőhegyi, a member of the group, said punishment was not a solution to the problem of homelessness, and instead people should be helped to get hold of a home.
Whereas homeless refuges provide security and help for many, more durable and worthy solutions are needed to eliminate homelessness, she added.
Attila Fülop, the state secretary for social affairs and inclusion, reacted that real help comes in the form of services that Hungary’s homeless actually make use of.
The change of law, enshrined in Hungary’s constitution, bans people from inhabiting a public space.
The government is spending 9.1 billion forints (EUR 28m) on homeless care this year, Fülop said, adding that it has decided to set up a reserve fund of 300 million forints for extra homeless provision.
Lajos Dani-Győri, the vice president of the Hungarian Maltese Charity, said their responsibilities will not change with the new law, and the charity has the necessary infrastructure to provide for the homeless.
Over 100 people gathered on Saturday in Budapest’s Szabadság square to demonstrate against nationalism and for European unity.
Addressing the crowd carrying EU flags, journalist Ferenc Gerlóczy said that sister demonstrations were being held simultaneously in over forty European cities in 13 countries from Belarus to Portugal.
Standing up for democratic values and against nationalism is important in all of Europe but even more so in central Europe, Eszter Nagy of the Hungarian branch of the Union of European Federalists said.
For a relatively small country such as Hungary, a strong and united EU is the best way to represent its interests, she said.
DK chose this form of protest after authorities withheld permission to hold a demonstration at the site, the party’s spokesman told a press conference.
“Viktor Orbán has shown his Turkish role model that the people can be silenced within the EU, too,”
Zsolt Greczy said, referring to Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He said DK had chosen the banner to send the message “to the dictators” that they are both persona non grata in Europe.
Photo: www.facebook.com/DemokratikusKoalíció
The two leaders have “the oppression of their own people” in common and both are dismantling democratic institutions, Greczy said.
With a similar reasoning, the opposition Dialogue for Hungary party also hung a banner on the Parliament’s facade with the title “Dictators”. As seen on the cover photo of this article, it featured Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Featured image: www.facebook.com/PárbeszédMagyarországért
A walk is taking place on Sunday across Budapest‘s Chain Bridge to raise awareness of breast cancer.
The Breast Cancer Association said in a statement that
almost 8,500 people are diagnosed each year in Hungary with the disease.
Before the annual walk across the bridge at sundown, various programmes such as medical examinations and informative talks were held.
Today the Éva Körtvélyes journalism prize will be awarded and as well as scholarships endowed by Nancy Brinker, a former US ambassador to Hungary, who has supported breast cancer awareness in Hungary since 2002.
Photo: MTI
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The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) staged a demonstration urging “resistance” to government policies on Tuesday afternoon, in the aftermath of the European Parliament adopting the Sargentini report that criticised the state of the rule of law in Hungary last week.
“Hungary is under dictatorial rule,” DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány said at the event near Parliament. Resistance, he said, should be aimed at “nothing less” than holding a general election under new and fair rules.
Gyurcsány, a former prime minister, called for a fight so that the incumbent government should find its “rightful place, namely the hell of Hungarian history.”
He told the crowd of a few hundred people that ruling Fidesz had exerted full control over Hungary’s banking system, public prosecution and the courts, and had taken possession over what has remained of state-owned arable land. It has also put education, health care and churches under its full control, and eliminated press freedom, Gyurcsány said. He also accused Fidesz of having established a new election system under “a one-party dictate”.
“This is not the will of the people but a consequence of Fidesz’s deceitfulness,” Gyurcsány said.
DK wants to help people in taking to the streets to say “this is enough, we want no more of this!”, he said, adding that the party would submit several amendment proposals to correct laws concerning measures criticised in the Sargentini report.
Addressing the crowd, Csaba Molnár, the deputy leader of DK, said that “in a dictatorship it is not just the right, but the duty of the people to send a regime packing if it governs the country by ignoring the will of the people”.
Politicians of the left-wing opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd and Democratic Coalition (DK) called for solidarity and street protests to overturn the Orbán government at a demonstration in Budapest on Sunday.
Bertalan Tóth, the head of the Socialist Party, said that the approval of the Sargentini report by the European Parliament showed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “is not the strong man of Europe but a branded populist” who professes to build a Christian democracy while the representatives of Christian Democrat parties vote against him. Orbán has “chosen the past, not the future, the East, not the West,” with his policies, he added.
Tóth said the approval of the report is the victory of pro-Europe parties over those opposed to Europe. Parliament does not need a resolution condemning the report, but bills that can correct the problems the report protests, he added.
DK chairman Ferenc Gyurcsány called on people to demonstrate in the streets to topple the government. From now on, it is not just the right, but the duty of the Hungarian people to take the fate of the government into their own hands and “send this regime packing”, he said. He noted that governments had earlier been overturned with continuous demonstrations in Serbia, Egypt and Slovakia.
A dictatorship lies behind the facade of parliamentary democracy, and dictatorships are not overthrown in parliament, Gyurcsány said.
“We cannot rest until the crowd in the streets forces Viktor Orbán to resign and a new election is called, with new campaign financing and media regulations,” he added.
Gyurcsány announced another demonstration for Tuesday, next to the parliament building.
Gergely Karácsony, the co-leader of Párbeszéd, said he was proud of the Hungarian MEPs who voted in favour of the Sargentini report. Those people love their country more than to be afraid of the prime minister calling them traitors, he added.
Karácsony said the first step should be to prevent Orbán from tearing apart the European Union as he has torn apart Hungary. Afterward, the EU’s social pillar needs to be strengthened, which requires sending as many progressive, pro-Europe MEPs to Brussels as possible.
Karácsony said that Orbán’s party loyalists cannot be allowed to get into the majority in the European Parliament in elections in the spring. Afterward, in local council elections, “small circles of freedom” must be organised, he added.
Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi urged people to “take back our national symbols”, saying that one of the first symbolic steps in the “establishment of the Orbán regime” was the “appropriation of the cockade”, a ribbon rosette of the national colours adopted by revolutionaries in 1848 as a symbol of independence.
Photo: MTI
The demonstration was organised a few days after MEPs approved the Sargentini report, so called because of its rapporteur, the Dutch, Greens MEP Judith Sargentini. The approval of the report, which cited the “existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded”, triggered an Article 7 procedure against Hungary would could ultimately strip the country of its EU voting rights.
Demonstrators filled Bem Square, near the Danube, carrying Hungarian and EU flags, as well as displaying emblems of the three organising parties and the Momentum Movement.
After the demonstration, some participants headed to Kossuth Square, in front of parliament, with a police escort. Some 300-400 people continued to demonstrate at Kossuth Square, as a cordon of police stood in front of the parliament building.
Photo: MTI
Ruling Fidesz said in response to the demonstration that the opposition still fails to accept the decision of the Hungarian people.
Opposition politicians supported “Brussels and pro-migration politicians in Strasbourg and continue to do so at home,” the party said.
The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) will stage a demonstration for “a European Hungary” on Sunday in coordination with the Socialist Party, a DK spokesman said on Thursday, in the aftermath of an EP vote on the Sargentini report.
As we wrote, members of the European Parliament in a vote on Wednesday approved the Sargentini report that finds the rule of law in Hungary wanting, read more HERE.
The European Parliament “delivered the Orbán regime a historic defeat” by approving the report, which criticises the state of the rule of law in Hungary, in a vote on Wednesday, Zsolt Gréczy told a press conference.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been defeated in Europe, while the Hungarian people have won, he said. The demonstration will be staged to make it clear that “the fight for a European Hungary is not over … On the contrary, it is just to gain impetus,” Gréczy said.
The spokesman said Democratic Coalition was in talks on joining forces with the Socialist Party, which also plans to hold a demonstration on Sunday.
Gréczy said DK would welcome other opposition parties, which voted in favour of the Sargentini report. as well as civil organisations to join.
The time and the venue of the demonstration will be announced after reaching an agreement with the Socialists, Gréczy said.
UPDATE
The Socialist and Párbeszéd parties confirmed they were in talks with DK on holding a joint demonstration “for a European Hungary” on Sunday, their leaders told a press conference today.
Gergely Karácsony, Párbeszéd’s co-leader, said the opposition should stand united and join ordinary protesters.
He said the Fidesz government had done everything it could to dismantle checks and balances over the past eight years. The only counterweights to Orbán’s “corrupt” government able to protect people’s rights are the EU and ordinary people, he said, adding that all those who want a European Hungary were invited to join the demonstration.
Commenting on the Sargentini report, Bertalan Tóth, the Socialist leader, said the report condemned the Orbán government rather than the country. He said the vote’s outcome was important signal that European politicians had decided “to defend Hungary against its own government”.
Tóth said the two parties would re-submit to parliament earlier proposals on matters criticised in the Sargentini report that aim to restore the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and the media, as well as proposals on eliminating corruption.
The celebration of the International Women’s Day may even be more relevant today than it was in 2011 when the Istanbul Convention against violence had been opened for signatures. The lack of Hungarian ratification makes one wonder about questions of Hungarian feminism today – and historically.
Currently, 364 days of the year can be considered men’s day in Hungary, just as in overall throughout the world: by today, structural inequalities have decreased, but they have not at all ceased to exist. Differences in the workplace, salaries and wages and everyday treatment are still apparent. We have written about Hungarian women at the forefront of history, and others who paved the way for future generations. Now it is time to take a look at feminism from a historical perspective.
Where does Hungary have a stand in this, and how did women’s rights in Hungary evolve?
Feminism seems like a curse-word in Hungary at times, though the majority usually does not even know what the term exactly means. It is to acknowledge the systematic and structural disadvantages that women suffer solely based on gender. In Hungarian social history, contrary to other countries, there were no real suffragette movements for women’s rights. Instead, we can differentiate forerunners precluding their own era regarding feminism.
Blanka Teleki and Klára Leövey are considered as the main figures of the history of Hungarian feminism: they were both engaged with the enhancement of women’s active role in society and the idea of a girls’ school. The foundations of the school were laid before the revolution despite serious lack of support both from family and the society.
The women were sentenced to 5 and 6 years in prison, following which they emigrated abroad without knowing that their common goal – an education policy for girls – is about to become reality, led by the 1868 education policy reform.
Photo: Léon Cogniet, Wikipedia.
Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the first Hungarian girls’ high school was established by Pálné Veres, another significant figure of Hungarian feminism. From that on, the main goal of these movement-like communities was to stabilise women’s position in education, and of course, their right to vote.
Women’s right to vote was eventually reached – although partially – in 1918, following a line of heated debates.
The possibility of women in duty in every segment, articulated after 1945 during the existing socialism in Hungary has led to ambiguous results regarding women’s emancipation. Although it rightfully enabled women to work, it was only a measure of propaganda causing women to do double-work: both work as profession and house-work. In 1980, an agreement about the prohibit of women’s discrimination was announced.
Feminism today – the main issues
It is hard to navigate in a society which is living „the feminist spring” and a new offspring of neo-conservativism at the same time. The view that women’s place is in the kitchen is reinforced by populist and right-wing politicians, causing a struggle in women’s everyday lives.
The lack of Hungarian ratification of the Istanbul Convention against violence is at least worrying concerning the government’s views on feminism and women’s right.
Topics such as the right to abortion, equal payment, violence and abuse against women in- and outside of the family and structural differences are high on politicians’ and social thinkers’ agenda.
Although it is true that these differences have decreased to some extent – for instance, with regards to salary – they have not ceased to exist.
The Hungarian parliament on Friday adopted a new assembly law to replace legislation passed back in 1989.
Under the new law, passed with 131 votes in favour and 56 against, “anyone will have the right to organise or participate in peaceful and unarmed demonstrations“. As defined by the new legislation, a “meeting” is an event “attended by at least two people with the aim of publicly express their opinion on some public affair”.
Public meetings shall be announced to the police at least 48 hours prior to the actual event.
The national assembly adopted an amendment to the penal code, under which people disrupting public events could be punished with up to one year in prison, while the punishment could be up to two years imprisonment if the person “violently disobeys” the organiser of the event.
The assembly law will take effect on October 1.
Parliament also passed a law aimed at ensuring increased protection to privacy, with 153 deputies supporting the proposal and 34 voting against it.
Under the new law “everybody is entitled to respect for their private and family life, home or contacts”.
The legislation stipulates that public officials are entitled to the same protection as private individuals “outside the discussion of public affairs”. Public officials’ activities in their private life or information thereabout are outside the public realm, according to the new stipulations.
The self-defined radical nationalist Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement (HVIM) on Wednesday organised a demonstration in Budapest to protest against the Romanian top court’s verdict sentencing two Transylvanian Hungarians to prison for what it called an attempted bomb attack in Targu Secuiesc (Kézdivásárhely) in 2015.
István Beke, local leader of HVIM, and Zoltán Szőcs, the movement’s Transylvanian leader, were each sentenced to five years in prison for what the Romanian authorities saw as an attempt to detonate a home-made explosive device at the parade on Romania‘s national holiday on December 1. The authorities charged them based on intercepted phone conversations and petards found at Beke’s home.
HVIM co-leader György Gyula Zagyva said at the demonstration that
the Romanian Supreme Court’s verdict was the state’s way of telling Transylvanian Hungarians to abandon their autonomy efforts.
This is also a message to 15 million Hungarians and to the Hungarian government, he said, to drop its support for Szekler autonomy efforts. Unless Hungarians take action over the verdict,
“they can drag away any Hungarians at any time”,
Zagyva said.
HVIM founder and head of the newly-founded Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party László Toroczkai said the case was about Hungarians’ solidarity towards one another. “At stake are the lives of two Hungarians who did nothing, other than have the courage to stand up for Hungarians,” he said.
Photo: MTI
Toroczkai demanded that the Hungarian government speak out for the release of the two men at all international forums.
ROMANIAN COURT PASSES OUTRAGEOUS POLITICAL VERDICT
JPresident of Jobbik Tamás Sneider said in the statement, even though the Bucharest Regional High Court’s ruling of April 7, 2017 has already pointed out the absurdity of the charges,
the Romanian power still wants to make an example of the Szekler patriots who struggle for self-determination.
Jobbik calls upon the Fidesz-Christian Democrat government to immediately take all possible measures so that justice could prevail over the Romanian political intentions in the case of the two Hungarian citizens.
The 23rd Budapest Pride march marking the end of Hungary’s month-long festival of the LGBTQ community was held on Saturday afternoon, with participants gathering near City Park and later moving across central Budapest without any significant incidents reported.
The march, led by a rainbow-decorated truck, proceeded along Andrassy Avenue, Nagymezo Street, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Road, Alkotmany Street, and ended at Kossuth Square in front of Parliament late in the afternoon.
Szilvia Nagy of the organising Rainbow Mission Foundation said at the start of the event that the march was a way of protesting against social exclusion and celebrating love and the diversity of the LGBTQ community.
The march was attended by NGOs, company representatives as well as members of the opposition Socialist Party, Párbeszéd, the satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party and Momentum, Nagy said.
Participants were greeted by counter-demonstrators at Kodály Körönd who held up a banner that read “Your queerness is disgusting”. Others revved their motorcycles to try to drown out the march.
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Another group of counter-protesters gathered at Oktogon. A few managed to breach the cordon protecting the marchers, but police corralled them into a gateway.
At Kossuth Square, Ádám Csikos said on behalf of the organisers that the state should grant same-sex couples the right to marry and raise children. He said he was proud that some 100 events were organised during the month-long Pride festival in Budapest and five other cities.
At the same time, Csikos voiced his frustration over what he called a lack of equal rights for LGBTQ people. “It’s not okay that a political regime forces its views onto citizens,” he said.
When participants at the front of the march reached Oktogon proceeding along Andrássy Avenue, the last ones were just passing Kodály Körönd — a distance of around 750m.
During the closing speeches at Kossuth Square, a European Union and a rainbow flag were hung from one of the windows of Parliament.
The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition had said in a statement that its MPs would greet the march by hanging Pride and EU flags from the windows of their offices.
Budapest Pride 2018, Photo: MTI
Socialist Party MP Ágnes Kunhalmi, the Liberal Party’s Anett Bosz and Parbeszed’s Bence Tordai, among others, were in attendance.
The Budapest police headquarters (BRFK) told MTI that officers had conducted ID checks but no other intervention was required.
The new law, sponsored by Justice Minister László Trócsányi, seeks to ensure the right to “organise or participate in peaceful and unarmed demonstrations, whether licensed or — in exceptional cases — unannounced, held in public areas”.
Under the new law, an event attended by at least two people would qualify as an assembly, if held in public with the aim of expressing opinions on some public affair.
The proposal would ban participation in meetings that have not been granted a licence. Organisers of such events would be in charge of the whole event, and would bear the responsibility of “leaving the venue in the state it was in prior to the event”. The leader of the event would also be obliged to ensure peace and order during the event and have the right to expel people disrupting it.
Participants in such events would be banned from carrying weapons, ammunitions, explosives or any other hazardous substances or from wearing (para-) military attire that may be intimidating or suggest violence. They would not be allowed to wear protective gear or to cover up their faces, according to the proposal.
Plans to hold public events shall be reported to the police at least 48 hours before their scheduled start time.
Particularly urgent meetings and spontaneous events may be exempted from this rule. Demonstrations planned to be held at the same venue and at the same time shall be granted permits in the order of their requests filed with the police.
The police will have an option to ban a meeting if it is deemed likely to jeopardise public order or security, or if it involves “unnecessary harm to the rights or freedoms of other people”.
According to the proposal, events would be seen as a threat to public order, if, for example, they disturbed the operations of law courts or blocked traffic.
Events could also be banned if they harmed others’ “rights to privacy or the protection of their family, home, human dignity, or the dignity of the Hungarian nation, or of national, ethnic, racial, or religious communities” or if they restrict people’s right to free movement.
The police could ban demonstrations from sites or on dates “associated with victims of national socialist or communist dictatorships” or if those demonstrations could “deny, doubt, belittle or justify” the crimes of such dictatorships.
Illegal demonstrations shall be dispersed. Organisers shall be held responsible for damages caused during a demonstration together with participants causing the damage.
The proposal also seeks to modify the penal code, under which people disrupting an assembly could face imprisonment of up to one year, or up to two years if they apply violence against the organisers of the event. Organisers holding events already banned by the authorities could face punishment of up to one year in prison.
Civil groups held a solidarity demonstration to protest against the government’s “Stop Soros” bill in front of Parliament on Monday, with speakers saying that rights organisations are not criminals and the bill violates basic rights.
Around fifty activists attended the event organised by Amnesty International (AI) which featured a ten-metre tall red, heart-shaped balloon showing the word “civil”.
Helsinki Committee co-leader Márta Pardavi said it was the government, rather than civil groups, that needed to change its position.
She asked lawmakers not to approve the bill.
AI Hungary director Júlia Iván said tens of thousands have expressed solidarity over the attacks against Hungarian civil organisations.
On Tuesday MPs are scheduled to debate the bill dubbed “Stop Soros” which would introduce amendments to the measures against illegal migration.
Ruling Fidesz said the Soros network is protesting against “Stop Soros” and the constitutional amendment because they want to move migrants to Europe and the “Stop Soros” package of laws will prevent this.
In addition to protesting in Kossuth Square on Monday, they have tried to use their influence in every possible way to remove Hungary from the way of the “Soros plan”, the party said in a statement. Soros’s allies have launched attacks against Hungary’s anti-migration government and against Fidesz in Brussels, in the United Nations, in EU institutions and the international press, the statement added.
The March of the Living set out from March 15 Square in Budapest today afternoon. Commemorators of Hungary’s Holocaust victims followed a path crossing Elisabeth Bridge to the Friedrich Born banks of the River Danube.
Chief rabbi Tamás Róna greeted those gathered and asked them to preserve the memory of the 600,000 Jews “whose lives could never be fulfilled”.
Imre Leibovits, a survivor of the Holocaust, said that over the past 2,000 years, Jews have been subjected to persecution after persecution. No state absent of pogroms had existed, he added.
The procession walked to the sound of the shofar, a ram’s-horn trumpet used in Jewish religious ceremonies.
March of the Living – Commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust startsMarch of the Living – Commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust starts
Speakers at the event emphasised the importance of remembrance and the dangers of exclusion.
Gábor Gordon, board chairman of the March of the Living Hungary Foundation, told the gathering that the people who took part in the march each year had turned into a huge community.
Israeli ambassador to Hungary Yossi Amrani said that the people processing beneath a “beautiful blue sky” along the banks of the Danube today did so in peace and love, but 74 years ago “the same sky saw horrors that the human mind cannot comprehend”. Then, people were going to their deaths, into the gas chambers or into the Danube itself, he noted.
As we wrote before, Israel owes its survival to having always defended its territory and protected its people, a government official said at the opening of an exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence in Bonyhád, in southern Hungary. Read more HERE.
