According to organizers, ten thousand people protested on Saturday in the center of Budapest against the austerity measures implemented last year by the left-center government of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány.
Marches of protesters, which started from nine different locations in the city, peacefully flowed towards the parliament at Kossuth Square in central Budapest, reported AFP. The protesters carried red-white-green Hungarian flags and red-white "Arpad flags," a symbol of the radical right. Two vice-presidents of the largest opposition party, the conservative Fidesz, as well as the president of the xenophobic and anti-Semitic MIEP party, Istvan Csurka, participated in the protests.
Government measures have led to increased taxes and inflation, which has reduced household consumption, particularly in the energy sector. Last year, tens of thousands of people protested in Budapest for two months starting in September against Gyurcsány, who admitted to lying to voters regarding the planned austerity measures. The protests turned violent, resulting in hundreds of injuries. The austerity measures introduced by the government are intended to reduce public debt, the highest in the European Union (9.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2006). (H)
