Hungarian Politics

[Tamas]

Injured MP is being taken to hospital on a stretcher.

He was separate from the rest of the group, one floor above the rest. When he started streaming of being hit and put to the ground the rest of the MPs wanted to rush to help but of course were not allowed to by the guards.

[Tamas]

Second MP, a woman this time, also in the ambulance, she is supposedly with just light bruises.

[Habbaku]

If you outlaw slavery only outlaws will be slaves.

We need a good guy with slaves to stop a bad guy with slaves.

[celedhring]

Ok, seems our media are picking this up now. I'm seeing the footage posted in several sites. I've just browsed it but it's indeed quite surreal, particularly the stairs part.

[Valmy]

It is unfortunate that the tax dollars of good EU citizens is being wasted propping up the Hungarian authoritarian state.

[Tamas]

Fuck this shit, nothing is going to happen. A couple of thousand protesters turned up but the MPs inside folded when the police gave their warning, and they left on their own accord. I understand the lack of desire to be manhandled by the police but them being forcefully removed would have been a powerful picture.

Alas, about a 1000 people is now wasting time at the tv hq while another thousand or so march through the city. First they tried to have privately owned pro-Fidesz TVs to read their demands which of course failed then they confused t tour buildings of government media, chanting in front of each before moving on.

Utterly pointless and very very weak after we witnessed today.

I have known this since 2011 and that's why I have left, but Hungarian democracy really died out in the pen today.

[The Brain]

You should have walked away, you should have walked away. Wait, you did. Good man.

[Tamas]

At least we have one good photo to show for it:

[Tamas]

And to offer some sexist entertainment as well, here is a vice-president of Momentum, one of the most significant outside-Parliament opposition parties. It's hard to gauge what they are actually for apart from progressive liberal "urbanite" stuff (and their own power-gain I guess) but they are young, smart, and seemingly determined. Plus their leader looks like young Orban so what could go wrong.



She has been in the forefront of Momentum but gained extra publicity when she was tackled from the back by riot police last week, when opening a smoke-generating party toy she literally bought in a toy store:
https://youtu.be/mYZwa6Ly8So

[Syt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/world/europe/hungary-lawmakers-assaulted.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=search&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

4 Lawmakers Assaulted in Hungary, as Protests Against Orban Continue

BUDAPEST — At least four opposition lawmakers were assaulted on Monday in Hungary, one of whom was hospitalized, after they visited the state media headquarters to request that the broadcasters end their wall-to-wall support for Hungary's far-right prime minister, Viktor Orban.

After a 10-hour standoff in which editors refused to give the legislators airtime, security guards forcibly ejected two of the lawmakers. A third, Laszlo Varju, managed to stay inside with several colleagues, but was injured during a scuffle with security guards later in the day. He was eventually taken to a hospital in an ambulance.

A fourth lawmaker was subsequently injured when she tried to burst through police lines to assist Mr. Varju.

The episode, which followed nearly a week of growing protests against the government's increasingly authoritarian behavior, was a turning point for Hungary under Mr. Orban.

Since entering office in 2010, Mr. Orban has gradually chipped away at the country's democratic framework, reducing judicial independence, taking control of most state and private media and reshaping the electoral system to favor his party, Fidesz.

But under Mr. Orban's watch, the government has largely avoided egregious displays of violence against his political opponents — until this week.

Opposition lawmakers said the assaults had revealed the true nature of the Orban regime.

"This doesn't happen in a democracy — but there is no democracy in Hungary," Mr. Varju said in a telephone interview, after an X-ray revealed no serious damage to his bruised ribs and knees. "That's why we are where we are."

The current wave of protests broke out in Budapest last Wednesday after the Hungarian Parliament, controlled by Fidesz, passed a pair of laws that respectively created a parallel justice system and forced workers to perform hundreds of additional hours of overtime a year.

The near daily demonstrations have since morphed into a catchall expression of dissent against Mr. Orban's government, not least its control over most forms of public discourse, including state broadcasters, which have declined to report on the protests.

The protesters, whose numbers peaked on Sunday at about 15,000, remain small in comparison to Mr. Orban's base: His party was re-elected in April with nearly 50 percent of the vote, after an election that observers said was free but not fair.

Zoltan Kovacs, a government spokesman, said that the current protests have "clearly no popular support" and were being led by "desperate" opposition lawmakers and celebrity activists, rather than ordinary people.

But analysts said the shocking nature of the assaults on the opposition lawmakers, and the unusually strong displays of solidarity among opposition parties during the protests, could signal a new dawn for the opposition.

It might help galvanize demoralized lawmakers and activists, win over undecided voters and help encourage greater international criticism of Mr. Orban, said Csaba Toth, executive director of the Republikon Institute, a Budapest-based political research group.

"I think this is definitely a new level," said Mr. Toth. "Physically assaulting M.P.s is something that has never happened before and can have consequences."

"It will not touch people who only watch Fidesz media, which is a sizable part of the population," Mr. Toth added. "So I do not anticipate a big, quick drop in Fidesz support. But I see a solidifying of support for the opposition."

Gabor Ivanyi, a pastor who joined a protest outside the state media building on Monday night, said that much would depend on whether the protests continue until Christmas or peter out.

"The time has come for fair laws," said Mr. Ivanyi, who performed Mr. Orban's marriage ceremony before falling out with the prime minister.

"We need to end this situation in which we belong to the European Union but we constantly revile it, in which we are NATO allies but we are palling around with Putin," he added, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. "This simply can't continue any longer. I think people have come to realize this."

[Tamas]

A Canadian-Belgian student can be in real trouble. He was arrested during Wendesday's protests and is accused of violence against the police. Sentence can be 2-5 years in prison if the prosecutor's office takes it to court.

I am saying he is in trouble because he could be the perfect government PR tool. He is foreign, he studies on CEU, and to put a cherry on that cake, he is doing his PhD on gender studies.

I am fairly certain his fate is being decided in the PR ministry, not at the prosecutor's

[Tamas]

BTW he spent the night in a cell with 4 other guys he didn't meet before, all from the same protest. The police accusation against them is literally the same. They "kicked toward the officers and punched with his left hand".

[mongers]

Listened to an interesting Radio 4 programme called 'George Soros and his Enemies', included quite a bit about current Hungarian politics and the shift to the right.

I'll see if I can find a link to it.

edit:
Link here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001mdd

[Richard Hakluyt]

A Canadian-Belgian student can be in real trouble. He was arrested during Wendesday's protests and is accused of violence against the police. Sentence can be 2-5 years in prison if the prosecutor's office takes it to court.

I am saying he is in trouble because he could be the perfect government PR tool. He is foreign, he studies on CEU, and to put a cherry on that cake, he is doing his PhD on gender studies.

I am fairly certain his fate is being decided in the PR ministry, not at the prosecutor's

On the other hand Orban might want to continue to fly under the radar and release the student. At the moment I would imagine that 90% of people are unaware of how bad things are getting in Hungary; a cause célèbre could change that.

[Tamas]

There'll be two protests tonight in Budapest (there have been several this week in the minor cities. Little ones but most of them bigger than usual in those places). One will be a mock of the pro-government "peace marches" they sometimes organise (by taxpayers paying for the buses shipping in tens of thousands from across the country). It's the awesome joke-party the Two-tailed Dog Party doing that one.  The other will be a more "regular" protest which originally aimed to stop the President from signing the Save Law. But he did so yesterday.

Anyways, the Hungarian police has released a helpful diagram on what is and isn't allowed on protests:




So I guess the main thing is that a protest should not disturb anyone. As long as its meaningless and can be easily ignored, the police will play ball.