"Racist and anti-government slogans, shoes, petards and tear gas marked the first far right rally and rampage of this fall last Sunday (Sep 21) on Szabadság tér and Andrássy út in Pest's District V.The extremist gathering was, this time, invoked by two other rallies, which took place in the same district at the same time. The protest of Roma organizations and that of the Democratic Charta, were directed against racism and extremism and were attended by several thousand people. These two latter rallies merged into each other at the Holocaust memorial near Parliament.
The peaceful, democratic rally was addressed by the PM, Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky, and several founders of the “original” Democratic Charta, which operated in 1991 against then-emerging far-right movements led by former MDF politician and writer István Csurka, who went on to form the far right Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP). Meanwhile, on Szabadság tér, extemist protesters started throwing shoes at policemen before trying to cross the cordon and damage the Soviet memorial.
The riot was broken-up by the police after several protesters started to pick up the pavement of the square, throwing stones at the policemen. The rioters were chased by officers along Andrássy út, where they caused serious damage. All eight people arrested in the unrest were released on Monday, the police said.
Violent far right rallies have sadly become part of the Budapest landscape since Sep 2006 (when the Prime Minister’s infamous Ôszöd “we lied” speech leaked out), and are likely to be repeated several times throughout the fall, at events like the anniversary of the attack against the headquarters of the Hungarian public television in 2006, and the anniversary of the 1956 revolution on Oct 23."
Source: Budapest Sun
25.09.2008