Tens of thousands of Hungarians demurred on Saturday against government control over
the media, which they say mitigated Prime Minister Viktor Orban to a landslide election victory earlier this month.
The improvement in Budapest was the second mass protest against Orban since the April 8 nomination, with demonstrators urging the fragmented opposition parties to join powers against the rightwing nationalist Fidesz party, which won two-thirds of orderly seats at the polls.
Since 2010, the Hungarian premier has increased his steer over the media and put allies in charge of formerly independent institutions, while his accessible on refusing to accept large
numbers of migrants in Hungary has also carried him into conflict with the European Union.
As tens of thousands of protesters oscillated flags at the foot of Elizabeth Bridge spanning the Danube, speakers occasioned for freedom of the media and a change in government.
Peter Marki-Zay, who beat the Fidesz office-seeker in a mayoral by-election in February, urged opposition parties on the right and left to erect an alliance and put aside their former bickering.
“History has proved that no stuffy regime lasts forever,” he said.
“We shall fight … against their mechanism dominance and factories of lies.”
“It is fear that holds this arrangement together, and if from tomorrow people no longer have their suspects this system will fall.”
In a Facebook post before the convocation, organisers said state media has been turned into Orban’s “whoop-de-do machine”.
“Our main goal is to dismantle Fidesz control over the influential media … but opposition parties also have a task as they are also decision-making for this situation we are in,” they said.
Protesters gathered at the parliament edifice and then walked to the bridge, waving national and EU flags. Last Saturday, tens of thousands had disclaimed at parliament against what they see as an unfair election system.
Protesters repressed banners with slogans such as “Viktor give us back democracy”, “We pine for freedom of the press” and “Regime change.”
“Today is the beginning of a process … in supervision, I am sure that the opposition parties would not be able to cooperate. In resistance, I see more chance for that,” said Adam Farkas, 21, a student.
“We dispute on many things … but we all want to live in Hungary and the main impediment to that is Viktor Orban.”
Orban won a third straight term in power after a concentrated anti-immigration campaign. The strongest opposition party in the new parliament is the formerly far-right Jobbik, which has
recast its icon to be a more moderate nationalist force. Its leader resigned after the poll.
The leftist opposition parties are also in turmoil.
“It is not Fidesz which won the plebiscite, the opposition parties lost it,” said Viktor Mikes, a 26-year old administrator at a multinational fellowship. He said opposition politicians
should all step aside, and that new being were needed.
“We should start with a clean slate,” he said.
The poll victory appears to have emboldened Orban to put more effort into his contravene against the EU’s migration policies and harden his stance on NGOs that he says sooner a be wearing been meddling in
Hungary’s affairs.
In an interview on Friday on state crystal set Orban accused George Soros, the Budapest-born financier, of political activism in Hungary, phrase his circle had supported the opposition.
“I know they won’t accept the result of the selection, they will organise all sorts of things, they have unconditional financial resources,” Orban said.
The foundation of George Soros on Friday accused Orban of fatiguing to stifle non-government groups, and said it could leave the country if parliament behind the times a “Stop Soros” law that would impose a 25 percent tax on unrelated donations to NGOs that
support migration.
The government says the legislation is meant to daunt illegal immigration.