Demonstrations still in focus

While opposition leaders are bracing for new mass demonstrations, although anti-government protestors on Tuesday only numbered a few dozen people, commentators continue to advise various strategies to follow on both sides.

On Mandiner, Milán Constantinovits calls on the government side to show moderation. He warns the authorities that the opposition leaders as deliberately seeking conflicts and hope to be seen as victims of arbitrary violence. Pepper spray has been used on demonstrators when the police had been attacked, he remarks, but nothing like the rubber bullets, truncheons, mounted police attacks and the like last seen in 2006, under the last left-liberal government. Nevertheless, the pro-government commentator believes the public media should have broadcast the five-point declaration presented for broadcast by a group of opposition MPs. It is not by reporting on opposition rallies and by broadcasting demands that government is losing (the consent of the people), Constatninovits writes, but by refusing to do so.

On Mérce, alt-left blogger András Jámbor warns opposition leaders against reverting to ordinary politics after having staged a sit-in at the public media building. On the contrary, he writes, they should crank up the protest by first calling a large demonstration several days in advance and if tens of thousands will show up, they can feel authorised to stage large scale strikes, block roads, occupy buildings and blockades industrial sites.

Tags: demonstrations, opposition