Protesters rally at Parliament against Orban
Hungary PM is poised to be re-elected tomorrow in a vote expected to be a formality
Hungary’s parliament convened yesterday for its inaugural session after an election landslide gave Prime Minister Viktor Orban a third straight term, while around 1,000 people protested outside against what they call his authoritarian rule.
Right-wing nationalist Orban has increased his control over the media and put allies in charge of formerly independent institutions. His hostility to accepting migrants into Hungary has put him in conflict with the EU, but proved popular in last month’s vote, particularly in rural areas.
Orban is due to be elected prime minister tomorrow in a vote expected to be a formality, and address parliament.
The protesters in Budapest, waving national and EU flags, said Orban had stifled the media and manipulated election rules in ways that favoured his party.
“I regard this government as illegitimate,” said demonstrator Edit Glasz. “By modifying the election law he secured another two-thirds majority in parliament.”
Protesters chanted “Democracy, democracy!” and put up a banner outside parliament reading “The Constitution is Illegitimate”.
Another protest was planned for later in the afternoon.
Defied predictions
The protests are part of a grass roots civil protest movement that has sprang up since April’s parliamentary election, with opposition party leaders still reeling from the results.
Orban’s ruling right-wing Fidesz party defied predictions of a tight contest by winning with a landslide 49 per cent of the vote compared to under 20 for its nearest challenger, the nationalist Jobbik party.
That helped Fidesz clinch a third consecutive two-thirds parliamentary majority in a row, granting Orban further legislative carte blanche to amend the constitution and fast-track new laws.
Since the vote Orban has pledged to govern in the interests of all Hungarians, but has also called his triumph “the biggest mandate” since the switch from communism in
1990.
His election campaign was dominated by strident antiimmigration rhetoric, and early measures signalled by the government indicate he will continue in the same vein.
One of his first steps is likely to be the insertion of a constitutional clause preventing the “settlement of alien population”.
Another package of bills targets non-governmental organisations funded by Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros who Orban says orchestrates immigration.
Judiciary, media squeezed
Orban’s critics meanwhile accuse him of removing democratic checks and balances and steering the country away from the European mainstream.
Further inroads on judicial and media independence, squeezed in recent years, are seen as likely by analysts.
Since the election, two protests organised via social media by a group called “We are the Majority” have drawn tens of thousands in Budapest with smaller demonstrations taking place in cities around the country.
The protesters have formed a cross-section of society, spanning age, class and political affiliation, with rainbow and EU flags flown alongside ultranationalist symbols.
On the Facebook page for yesterday’s protest, organisers wrote: “We cannot let Orban’s corrupt system deprive us of our freedom, ... and our country’s place in Europe”.
Their demands include reform of the electoral system, redesigned by Fidesz in 2011 and which critics say helped deliver Orban’s party its twothirds majority, even though it won under half of the vote.
“This two-thirds wasn’t even a half of the electorate, we don’t consider this government legitimate,” a protester Katalin Kazmer, 71, told journalists.
The protesters also want state media to adhere to nonpartisan guidelines after international observers found “media bias” had helped tilt the poll in Fidesz’s favour.