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Hungarian opposition lawmakers chain themselves to parliament gates
Dec 23, 2011, 9:52 GMT
Budapest - Opposition lawmakers chained themselves across the gates to Hungary's parliament building Friday in a protest against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The liberal-green opposition party Politics Can Be Different was protesting what it said was the government's steady dismantling of the institutions of democracy.
The demonstration came as parliament was expected to vote on several issues, among them electoral reform and a central bank bill that critics - among them the European Commission - fear could limit the independence of the Hungarian National Bank.
With its lawmakers filling two-thirds of seats in the national assembly, Orban's Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance has been able to push through wide-ranging reforms and even a new constitution without cross-party consensus during its 18 months in power.
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