Budapest has seen the largest anti-government demonstrations yet with up to 40,000 demonstrating peacefully outside parliament demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany.
Gyurcsany was caught on tape admitting he “lied morning, noon and night” to get elected, but now claims he didn’t mean he actually lied, but was just exaggerating. Gyurcsany’s Social Democrat/Liberal coalition government had promised tax cuts and higher social spending but instead has introduced a program of slashing social spending and higher taxes, fuelling anger that boiled over when the 'lying tape' was leaked. Gyurcsany, a former Communist official, calls himself a Socialist but is a millionaire businessman and one of the richest men in Hungary.
As the sixth consecutive night of protests has seen smaller demonstrations take place in provincial towns across Hungary, nationalist politicians have been invoking the memory of the 1956 workers' revolution against Communist rule as they manoeuvre for state power, with some promising a campaign of civil disobedience until the current government is replaced by them. While the main opposition party, the conservative Fidesz, have asked protestors to wear white as a rejection of violence, Kemal Ekrem, who has a conviction for ‘conspiring to overthrow the constitutional order’, claimed to have been elected as a spokesman for the demonstrators and said:
“We are prepared to get rid of this government by radical means, like they did in 1956. In a violent way … we want to bring into existence a real government composed of nationalists.”
In 1956, government rule itself was challenged by the rapid spread of directly democratic workers’ councils. While there is much anger amongst the working class over the government’s economic policies, so far opposition leaders have managed to channel this discontent away from capitalism in general towards ‘foreign capital’ and ‘globalisation’, and there have been no reports of workers taking direct action – either strikes or occupations – which were the hallmark of the events of 1956. A member of the Budapest-based Barricades Collective said “the real class discontent is toeing the line of nationalism.”
Comments