Anti-Orban rallies snowball to denounce Hungary’s rule

Bloomberg

Protests against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s regime grew as an initial call to repeal a law on overtime work widened into a demand for a return to liberal democracy, including independent courts and free public media.
The demonstration was the biggest of four in five days and highlighted the backlash against Orban’s centralisation of power. The 55-year old won a third consecutive election in April and his cabinet is undergoing a European Union probe over accusations that it’s undermining the rule of law. The protest also showed exasperation on the part of critics for their inability to influence policy and slow the country’s slide from democracy.
The rally climaxed at the headquarters of state media, where opposition lawmakers tried and failed to have their demands read out on air. With police using tear gas to keep thousands of angry protesters from entering the building, the tension had echoes of 2006, when demonstrators set fire to the state television building to kick off the worst street violence since the country’s uprising against Soviet rule half-a-
century earlier.
Orban, who was in opposition then, harnessed the protests to return to power in 2010. Unlike then, the government now enjoys broad support in opinion polls and an economy that’s growing at the fastest pace in 13 years. Rallies now are “the aggressive display of a tiny minority,” Gergely Gulyas, the most senior minister under Orban, told public radio.
While smaller than some other opposition protests over the past eight years, the ones in the past week showed a kind of resilience unseen since Orban’s return to power as thousands braved freezing temperatures day after day and skipped Christmas shopping to make their voices heard. The protest galvanised and united opposition parties of all stripes, who took the lead at the demonstrations.
Opposition lawmakers’ plea to protesters to avoid violence prevailed. The politicians, who held a sit-in at the public broadcaster overnight and live-streamed developments, were forcibly removed from the building. One of them, Akos Hadhazy, called state media the “heart of the system” for what he said was its role in “manipulating” the population.
Orban’s lawmakers have a two-thirds majority in parliament, allowing them to pass
any law without opposition support.