Hungarian oppositionist demonstrators begging their parties to ally
Unlike the demonstrations opposing the current Fidesz-government organized so far, in this case parties and politicians were not forbidden to take party flags and symbols, on the contrary, everybody opposing prime minister Viktor Orbán was encouraged to be present and represent any of the parties.
The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the Democratic Coalition (DK), and a recently founded liberal party participated, however, the Együtt 2014-PM coalition led by former prime minister Gordon Bajai, a major hope for those who oppose both Orbán and the Socialists, was absent. (It is constituted of Együtt 2014 and PM Párbeszéd Magyarországért, one wing of LMP, the liberal party present in the Parliament that split because of disagreement whether to join Együtt 2014 or not. On the the antecedent political developments see: http://ceuweekly.blogspot.hu/2013/02/what-is-going-on-in-hungary-february.html, "Split of the Liberal Party")
Most of the speakers accused Orbán of executing the Third Hungarian Republic with his almost authoritarian governance. However, the main message of the speeches was addressed to the parties in opposition, demanding the establishment of a unified democratic political front for the sake of changing the government on the election of 2014.
Noteworthy, that other demonstrations which did not aim at such an ambitious result, but rather for concrete goals, such as the abolition of the new media law, attracted much more people. One can wonder on the effects of bad timing (working day in the summer) and not perfect weather. However, the core problem of the opposition is probably the absolute lack of willingness to ally.
Agnes Kelemen
This artile was written for the blog of The CEU Weekly, see also:
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