Budapest protest

Demonstrators including former Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany were arrested on Friday when police broke up a protest against laws that the opposition claims are undemocratic.

Gyurcsany, who headed two previous Socialist governments, was removed by force along with several party colleagues and lawmakers from the green-liberal opposition Politics Can Be Different (LMP) party.

Parliament was sitting for a marathon session on laws tabled by Prime Minister Prime Minister Viktor Orban's conservative government. The legislation included electoral and taxation changes.

"Orban's autocracy can no longer tolerate even peaceful opposition and protest," Gyurcsany told the news agency Reuters after he was released. Police told the state news agency MTI that 26 arrests were made in total.

Members of the LMP had chained themselves to gates outside the assembly, dominated by Orban's conservative Fidesz party and its Christian Democrat allies, as the laws were debated. They were later joined by Gyurcsany and members of his new Democratic Coalition party.

Police said in a statement that protesters had blocked the entry of lawmakers to parliament, and had ignored repeated requests to leave.

A vice chairman of Fidesz dismissed the protests as "political parody."

‘Ruling, not governing'

A crowd of several thousand gathered near parliament on Friday evening as LMP leader Andras Schiffer said his party would press for a referendum to reverse Orban's policies.

"Viktor Orban is not capable of governing, he wants to rule," said Schiffer.

Government lawmakers approved an electoral reform package, which opposition parties claim amounts to a fixing of electoral boundaries to give the ruling group an advantage. Socialists say the changes would make it impossible to have a left-wing candidate elected in some districts.

Also unpopular with opposition members was a "financial stability" bill - which stipulates that key components of government tax policy can only be changed with a two-third majority vote in parliament.

The European Commission has called on Hungary to postpone implementation of the financial bill, as well as a law to reduce the power of the central bank chief, until it can be established that they are compatible with EU law.

The proposals before parliament led International Monetary Fund and EU officials to break off negotiations about a possible credit line of up to 20 billion euros ($26 billion) on Friday.

Since coming to power in 2010, Orban's government has introduced a controversial media law, tightening its control over press and broadcasting.

It has also curbed the powers of the country's constitutional court, renationalized private pension assets and dismantled an independent budget supervision body.

Author: Richard Connor (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Andreas Ilmer