Protesters arrested in Hungary include former premier

Dec 23, 2011, 18:02 GMT

Budapest - A former Socialist prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, was among two dozen demonstrators held briefly for questioning Friday after police broke up a protest by opposition lawmakers outside Hungary's parliament.

There was uproar as opposition politicians were arrested and driven away. Inside the building, their colleagues whistled and waved red cards at government lawmakers as a raft of controversial legislation was put to the vote.

Members of the green-cum-liberal party Politics Can Be Different, known as the LMP, had chained themselves across the gates to a car park in protest at what they saw as a steady dismantling of the institutions of democracy by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's conservative government.

Addressing a crowd of several thousand near parliament in the evening the leader of the opposition party Andras Schiffer spoke of the 'cynicism' of the government and said his party would push for a referendum to challenge Orban's policies.

'Viktor Orban is not capable of governing, he wants to rule,' Schiffer said.

Parliament had convened in the morning for a marathon session on a series of widely criticized bills pushed through by Orban's Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance, which dominates the national assembly.

Gyurcsany and members of his new Democratic Coalition party had emerged from the parliament building after boycotting the vote to lend their support to the green group, several of whom were also arrested when police moved in at around noon.

They were held for between 15 minutes to an hour. Gyurcsany told reporters as he came out of the police station that he planned to lodge an official protest over his detention.

Several other Socialist politicians were detained, among them party leader Attila Mesterhazy, after they tried to prevent police vehicles from carrying protesters away for questioning.

Police said that in all 26 arrests were made, the state news agency MTI reported.

While opposition parties accused the government of using the police to silence their protest, senior Fidesz politician Lajos Kosa described the events of the morning as a 'parody of politics.'

'Ferenc Gyurcsany selfishly stole the show from the LMP,' Kosa said of Orban's arch political rival.

Meanwhile, inside parliament, government lawmakers hurried through a busy legislative agenda.

A central bank bill, which European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had called on Orban to shelve, was modified to a chorus of whistles and jeers from the opposition benches.

The European Central Bank had expressed concerns Thursday that the law - expected to be passed next week - could reduce the independence of the Hungarian National Bank.

The government claims its last-minute modifications to the bill, expected to be passed next week, bring it in line with European Union rules.

This was just one of more than a dozen items on the agenda. Government lawmakers also pushed through an electoral reform package that opposition parties claim amounts to gerrymandering.

A 'financial stability' bill - which Barroso had cautioned Orban to reconsider - was also passed. The constitutional law cements key parts of government tax policy so they are only amendable by a two-thirds majority vote in parliament.