Published on
01/06/2025 – 23:13 GMT+2
In Budapest, protesters collected on Fővám Square Sunday afternoon earlier than marching silently around the Freedom Bridge.
The demonstration used to be a symbolic act in opposition to a draft regulation that critics say is designed to silence dissent and limit get right of entry to to the click and NGOs.
“Our work is not subversion, but construction. It is not offence, but defence. Not betrayal, but service,” wired Viktor Szalóki, political director of aHang.
“The government thinks it is dangerous to speak up for those who are not being heard. That I am working to ensure that everyone in Hungary lives in a healthy environment,” mentioned Enikő Tóth, the organisation’s marketing campaign director.
Tóth mentioned the invoice’s function is unmistakable: to keep an eye on, intimidate and silence any organisation or citizen who helps civil society — whether or not by way of signing a petition, creating a small donation, or volunteering.
The transparency invoice may just pass to a vote by way of mid-June. If handed, it would take impact 3 days afterwards.
Euronews spoke to demonstrators on the protest.
“Those in power don’t care, they are working on other things. They are working to make everyone impossible. This arrogance of power, that thousands of billions of forints have to be protected at any cost – I think that’s what it’s all about,” mentioned an aged guy.
“These protests are good to keep our spirits up”, mentioned a tender lady. “We don’t lose a little of our own hope, we strengthen it. In other words, even if there are no concrete consequences of the demonstration, so that a regulation is immediately changed because of it, we still reinforce each other a little here that it is still worth holding on,” she defined.
The march concluded at St. Gellért Square, the place activists from aHang positioned a big billboard-style show that includes portraits of presidency politicians at the building barrier surrounding the Gellért Hotel, which is lately being renovated.
The lodge is now owned by way of BDPST Zrt., an organization related to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s son in regulation István Tiborcz.
The silent protests will proceed Monday and Tuesday, with additional demonstrations deliberate in different portions of Hungary.
