Saturday demonstration #2

Commentators agree that the tens of thousands of people who attended the second Saturday demonstration against the government are still far from having clear political objectives. Otherwise, they express diametrically opposed views on this new movement.

For the second Saturday in a row after the elections, tens of thousands marched through the streets of Budapest to express their frustration over the outcome of the vote. They will hold their third rally in front of the Parliament building on May 8 when the newly elected MPs will meet for the first time.

On Pesti Srácok, Gyula T. Máté finds it absurd that while the mass rally was officially meant to demand a free press, it was broadcast live by two nationwide TV stations.

In Magyar Idők, Zsolt Bayer lambasts the leaders of Jobbik who took part in Saturday’s protest along with DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány, although Jobbik gained mass support after the riots in 2006 against Mr Gyurcsány’s government.

On Reflektor, on the other hand, Szilárd Veisz writes that after positioning himself at the centre for a decade, PM Orbán is now trying to win over the radicals of Jobbik, even at the price of losing moderate conservatives. He thinks that Fidesz owes its crushing superiority in the countryside to recruiting former Jobbik voters.

On 444, Dániel Ács calls Saturday’s protesters ‘the loneliest huge crowd Budapest has ever seen’. The first demonstration was held against alleged electoral fraud. By now, protestors have resigned themselves to the defeat of the opposition. But they still don’t know where to move from there. In any case, Ács concludes, their speakers are amateurish, and they have no people to represent them in Parliament.

Tags: demonstration, Gyurcsány, Jobbik, opposition