Police, protestors clash again in Hungary (2nd Roundup)

By Michael Logan Mar 15, 2007, 23:35 GMT

An anti-government demonstrator waves a national flag atop of a barricade in front of the State Opera House (R) during clashes with riot police in Budapest after celebrations marking the 159th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1848 revolution and war of independence against the Habsburg rule, Thursday 15 March 2007. EPA/LASZLO BELICZAY

Budapest - Hungarian police clashed with around 1,000 protestors Thursday evening in Budapest as the violence that marred the capital last year flared back into life.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to drive the crowd - mainly youths, many of them masked - along a major downtown avenue and dispersed them in different directions.

The crowd attempted to slow the police advance by using rubbish bins, benches and wooden scaffolding to create burning barricades.

By late evening, police said that several dozen people had been arrested, while the ambulance services reported six injured, including five police officers.

Trouble began when a crowd gathered to demand the release of Gyorgy Budahazy, who police earlier had arrested for his role in September's anti-government riots.

The clashes were much smaller than most had predicted and were the only major disruption on a day of largely peaceful commemorations of the 1848 revolt against Habsburg rule. More than 1,000 events had been announced for the Thursday, many of them anti-government protests.

The largest event of the day saw a massive crowd listen to Viktor Orban, leader of the main right-of-centre opposition party Fidesz, criticize the government. Crowd estimates varied wildly, with Fidesz claiming 250,000 people in attendance.

The Fidesz leader blamed 'the new aristocracy' for Hungary's problems and said that the authorities were on their way out.

Fidesz has failed in several attempts to oust Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, and analysts believe the premier is secure in his position despite very low approval ratings.

Orban and his party have been attempting to force out the government since September, when a tape leaked to the press showed Gyurcsany admitting to lying about the state of the economy prior to the April 2006 general elections.

Many people were already angry about an austerity package - which raised taxes, hiked energy prices and called for spending cutbacks in an attempt to cut the massive budget deficit - that the government introduced shortly after being elected.

Violence erupted immediately following the leak of the tape, and hundreds of right-wing extremists and football hooligans burned cars and pelted police with rocks and bottles as they stormed the headquarters of state-owned Hungarian television.

Clashes died down after a few days but reignited on October 23 - the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising against communist rule - when police fired teargas and rubber bullets at thousands of protestors.

Hundreds were injured and arrested in the running street battles, some of them people who had attended a rally organized by Fidesz. Fidesz accused police of deliberately targeting peaceful protestors.

Many had warned of larger-scale violence Thursday, with officials claiming that organized right-wing groups were planning to attack government targets.

However, the relatively limited violence showed no signs of being well-organized and no weapons were evident other than those improvised from the surrounding environment.

Fidesz had earlier dismissed government warnings as scaremongering, and Orban again accused the government of attempting to stop people from gathering on the streets.

'They did not succeed in intimidating us; despite the provocation, we have gathered again today,' he told his supporters.

The daytime events did not pass completely without incident, though, and in late morning and early afternoon thousands of right- wing demonstrators disrupted several of the official commemorative events.

Around 2,000 demonstrators pelted Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky with eggs and other debris as he spoke on the banks of the Danube River in Budapest by a statue of Sandor Petofi, the poet credited with inspiring Hungarians to revolt against Austrian rule.

As the projectiles flew and protestors drowned out his speech with boos and whistles, security staff used umbrellas to shield the mayor, a member of The Alliance of Free Democrats - the junior coalition partner of Gyurcsany's Hungarian Socialist Party.

Demszky finished his speech despite the barrage of abuse, saying: 'There are more people with us, no matter how loud this minority here may whistle.'

The same crowd, many carrying an ancient flag now associated with a pro-Nazi party in charge at the end of World War II, had earlier disrupted ceremonies outside the national museum and parliament as they called for Gyurcsany's head.

Gyurcsany was labelled a 'traitor' and a 'communist pig' by the crowd.

The prime minister was a member of the communist youth before the change of system in 1989-90, and many on the right view his party as the communists in new capitalist clothing.