The Együtt party called the Fundamental Law the “constitution of a cold civil war”. Party leader Viktor Szigetvári said that if a leftist government were to come to power, the constitution would be scrapped immediately. He said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s defeat in an election would also mean the end of “his regime”.

Szigetvári said a new constitution would not be enough to undo the damage inflicted upon Hungary over the past two and a half decades.

Passing a constitution “that does not interfere with people’s lives on an ideological basis” would be an essential starting point in rebuilding Hungary, he said.

The PM party said the document embodied “the essence of Orbanism” and called it an “illegitimate heap of paper”.

The party described the constitution as “anti-democratic, anti-poor ... anti-worker, pro-austerity ... and discriminating”. They said the ruling Fidesz party had “forced” the constitution onto Hungary in 2011.

The party said the document contained everything for which the Hungarian people “rightfully hate the Orbán regime”, such as “the tearing down of checks and balances”, the “unfair” single-rate personal income tax regime, and the elimination of the social welfare state.

The Liberal Party called the Fundamental Law an “unacceptable, one-party dictate”. Party leader Gábor Fodor said the constitution has undermined the rule of law and for all intents and purposes eliminated checks and balances.

The Socialists said they wanted “a new constitution, a new republic”. Socialist vice chair István Hiller said that the Fundamental Law was “Fidesz’s constitution... the basic law for an illiberal state”.

He insisted that introduction of the current constitution had removed an equilibrium between the ruling and the opposition parties, and ensured exclusive power for the majority.

“The republic is dead”, Ferenc Gyurcsány, former prime minister and head of the Democratic Coalition (DK), told a demonstration organised by his party. Those here have not come to celebrate but to mourn the republic, which was “raped, destroyed and finally killed after 22 years”, Gyurcsány said.

Those in power have “never meant the country to be a home to all of us, they never thought that the country belongs not only to them but to everybody,” Gyurcsány insisted.

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