Tepid „Occupy Wall Street” – Saturday in Budapest
October 18th, 2011A right-wing pundit believes the anti-Wall Street movement is here to stay, but is not particularly popular in Hungary, because the Hungarian government is already working to satisfy its demands.
“This week we are not living last week’s history any more” – believes István Lovas in Magyar Nemzet, commenting on Saturday’s global demonstration.
He interprets the intention of the protesters in over 900 cities in 81 countries as a desire to “put an end to the present system of income disparities which concentrates unlimited money and power in the hands of the bankers.”
Lovas, who is the Brussels correspondent of Magyar Nemzet, believes that José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission is preparing for possible left wing takeovers in France, Germany and Italy by proposing new legislation that would stipulate the criminal liability of financial operators. Such a prospect is bad news for “those who are talking about Stalin-type show trials in connection with the charges levelled in Hungary against former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány,” Lovas believes.
The international protest chain was joined in Hungary by a single, marginal group, which could only mobilise a few hundred demonstrators. Lovas ascribes this limited public interest to the government’s economic policies: “In Budapest the government is actually implementing the programme of the demonstrators.”