A crowd of some 100 000 Hungarians (estimated by the organizers) unhappy with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government gathered on 23 October in Budapest to demonstrate on the 55th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 revolution. The demonstrators protested against a series of measures and autocratic governing methods of FIDESZ’s two thirds majority. (The fact that the Prime Minister is referred to by some of his opponents as „Victator” tells a lot…. ) The government’s celebration was originally scheduled to take place not far from this demonstration and later wascanceled„due to Mr Orban’s attendance at the Brussels EU summit” the same day.
The motto of the demonstration was „I don’t like the system”, made popular bya music video spread extensively via social media channels. The song was listed by Youtube statistics as one of the 50 most liked and discussed music videos in the world that week.The organizer of the demonstration was a Facebook group called ”Egymillióan a sajtószabadságért” (A Million People for the Freedom of the Press), also supported by a number of NGOs: TASZ (Civil Liberties Union, an NGO fighting for freedom of speech and democratic rights), 4K (4th Republic, this group has since Sunday stated it will form a new left wing political party next spring).
Some demonstrators interviewed in TASZ’s video covering the event quoted the lack of a strategy and the hopeless economic situation as one of the reasons for their being unhappy with the present system. Others complainedof an increasing number of young people wanting to leave the country….and that „It is the poorest who are paying for what is being done to this country.. „ . The main issues raised by the speakers at the demonstration were the way the government is criminalizing homelessness, limiting the freedom of speech, reorganizing the education system (making it difficult for children - including the Roma - with a disadvantaged background to become successful), and overall representing the interests of the elite, the government propaganda and the way the state media presents only the government’s views (the demonstration itself was either ignored or bagatellized by the mainstreakm media - stressed the organizers), the way trade unions are stepped over. The overall message of the demonstration was: that the democratic achievements of the last 20 years are being thrown away .
„We are drifting further and further away from those ountries which we „started off together with” in 1989….Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic…” said one of the protesters in the above video recording . „Things are not going the way one would expect in a democratic country „ - claimed another interviewee…adding that „there is no freedom of the press.. people are afraid…after 20 years for the first time ".
Organizers of the event suggested the election of an alternative President of the Republicnext spring since, as they said, they are fed up with the fact that the first thing the country’s present President (Mr Pal Schmitt) brings into mind is his spelling mistakes……Some opponents of Mr Orban’s regime considered this last suggestion as a theatrical and unnecessary act and were altogether unsatisfied with the demonstration's messages claiming that "crowds without content" is not enough....
Photos by : Péter Egyed