After the last round of far-right rioting in Budapest (against a gay march), there was some "but now let's do something about it, really". On one hand, PM Gyurcsány, head of the Socialist minority government [who BTW just survived a vote of no confidence in parliament], started a "civic movement" called "Democratic Charter", which was immediately criticised as a PR move, which can be no civic movement, being top-down. On the other hand, a journalist started a civic movement of her own.

Now the Democratic Charter held its first rally today, with some five thousand attending (the more genuine movement will hold its own in two weeks, I may attend). So the far-right usual suspects had to announce protests for the same day, too (insane motto: "Down with the hate of Hungarians"), and naturally, some hundreds went over to attack the Charter-ists.

What followed was the now all too usual routine: attacking opposed protesters, journalists; throwing stones and molotov cocktails at police; trying to stop police charges by demolishing everything on their way; police being caught with their pants down (this time weapons were taken from a police car; later recovered). One new twist was the standoff at the church of a well-known far-right Calvinist pastor, into which a hundred rioters fled.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}