Today's opposition protest (for an intro see the end of the diary) was much better organised and prepared than yesterday's (after all, it repeats another a month ago). I estimated 10,000 people in the three roads meeting at a square.

Although crowd reaction was better today, for my taste, yesterday's speakers were better, today's often sank into generalities, so I only mention two exceptions. One was the host, an employee of Klubrádió, the radio station the government wants to snuff out. When I arrived, it was as if he was speaking directly to me (see the diary): "I especially welcome those who don't like us but are here, because this is not about liking us."

The other was Balázs Dénes, leader of a media freedom NGO, TASz. His thesis was that Fidesz's practices are only the crowning of the attitudes of all prior governments, and managed to deliver broadsides against less-than-proper actions of prior Socialist governments [I mentioned an example in Protest in a one-party state in the paragraph on László Majtényi] and the toleration of that by supporters (explicitly including the Klubrádió of the past) in a way that he still got cheers.

So, instead of speakers, let me show some placards. Those in English speak for themselves:

The next one shows a symbol adopted by the new protest movement, the so-called Kossuth coat-of-arms, which is an old republican symbol. (The history behind it: during the 1848-49 Revolution, when the revolutionary government of Hungary withdrew its recognition of the Habsburg Emperor as King of Hungary and declared the first Republic of Hungary, they created a new coat-of-arms by removing the royal crown. The Kossuth coat-of-arms was official again during the also short-lived Second Republic [1945-49]. However, a wide majority of the first freely elected parliament of the Third Republic [1989-2011] voted to restore the royal coat-of-arms instead – some out of conservatism, some because it just looked better.)

This time, I saw no sign of Jobbik counter-protesters. On the balcony of one adjoining building, however, there was a miniature pro-Fidesz counter-protest: a national flag with a Fidesz slogan which was the Hungarianisation of Berlusconi's "Forza Italia" (and also the royal coat-of-arms with crown on top).

Upon leaving, people flooded stands erected by Szolidaritás for a pro-EU action: people signed declarations addressed to Barroso and declaring that they maintain their vote in the 2003 EU referendum (resp. would have voted for accession if they are younger). Then people left in all directions.

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