Leftist and rightist protests continue in Budapest

The season for protests continued while the CEU weekly was on holiday. On the 23rd of December, MPs and activists of the opposition party LMP (Politics Can Be Different) chained themselves to the gates of the Parliament to protest the Central Bank Act, a stability law which includes the introduction of a flat tax, as well as the new election laws and the modification of House Rules, by preventing lawmakers from entering the Parliament. After a while the police managed to cut the chains and briefly detained lawmakers participating in the protest, including former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. Later that day, thousands of people protested in front of the Parliament.

The largest protest event of the holiday season took place on Andrássy Street, in front of the Opera house on the 2nd of January. An estimated 70 000 people protested against the new constitution, which took effect on Jan. 1. During the time of the peaceful protest, Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other leading government officials celebrated the new Basic Law inside the opera. The reason why this protest is so peculiar is that it was organized by wide variety of civil organizations and opposition parties MSZP and LMP together. After the official protest was over, a few thousand people stayed in front of the opera to wait for the participants of the gala to leave, but all in all the demonstration passed off peacefully.

On Jan. 14, there was a demonstration organized by Jobbik, a far right opposition party in the Parliament, currently occupying 12% of the seats. The protest took place outside the European Commission's mission to Hungary, and was standing for a very different message. Jobbik chairman Gábor Vona used the protest to emphasize his intention of making Hungary exit the European Union. Vona explained that the warning letter from Jose Manuel Barroso, in which he demands withdrawal from the parliamentary debate bills containing radical changes to two cardinal laws mentioned above, is a declaration of war to Hungary. At one point during the demonstration of a few thousand people (many of them wearing quasi-military outfits), three Jobbik MPs drenched an EU flag in lighter fluid and set it on fire on the stage.