For two years now, the idiots' revolution branch of the Hungarian far-right stages riots in Budapest at every opportunity. We are speaking about maybe ten thousand willing to go on the streets, with a violence-ready core (many of them football hooligans) of originally a few thousand, lately reduced to a few hundred men. The situation is complicated by a main right-wing party steadfastly refusing to denounce any far-right move.

While the rioters' numbers reduced, their rhetoric, methods, recklessness, and scope of targets escalated. It started as a reaction to PM Ferenc Gyurcsány's leaked speech before a closed-doors meeting of the Socialist faction, in which he said "we lied" about the state of the economy during the 2006 elections campaign (to trim them for planned 'reforms'). So the violence was mainly directed against the government and police.

But on 5 July this year, they attacked the annual Gay Pride March (I reported) - which motivated some people to do something to show colours against the street fascists.

Unfortunately, one of them was PM Gyurcsány himself -- who went before cameras and announced the formation of a civic movement against violence, the "Hungarian Charta". You see, it is difficult to consider a movement 'civic' when led by a party politician... still, many prominent people joined.

The Hungarian Charta held its own protest march on 20 September, with about 3,000 attending. Though to the most part, police managed to keep the two crowds apart, the rioters were active that day, too (again a few hundred out of a counter-protest of c. one thousand, I reported).

About this protest

At the same time as the PM, Ágnes Daróczi, a prominent Roma TV journalist initiated a civic movement of her own: Tarka Magyar!. This name doesn't translate well: literally, it means "Checkered Hungarian"; where 'checkered' is also used to mean "diverse" in Hungarian; but the whole expression is also a play on "Talpra, magyar!" = "On your feet, Hungarian!", the refrain of the most important poem of the 1848 Revolution.

Like the PM's rival initiative, Tarka Magyar! started with a charter up for signature, this one containing nothing but the Hungarian Constitution's anti-discrimination paragraph 70/A. The movement was joined by several civic organisations. They wished to stay avay from party politics, but politics didn't do the courtesy to them.

Tarka Magyar! requested the heads of all five parliamentary parties to sign the charter, then wait for them to release the signatures together, and otherwise stay away. But PM Gyurcsány pre-empted them by announcing his signature -- and his attendance...

The organisers also called upon police to NOT install cordons all along their protest route: on one hand, the rioters have used those in the prior two events, on the other hand, not being frightened would be the point! Also, a far-right request for counter-protest was withdrawn.

Photo report

Rain was predicted for today, but the rally was spared of getting wet. Still, the mood was gloomy under placid skies as c. 2,000 gathered in a park near the centre of Pest. They were a mix of "usual suspects": 'Green' youth (Pace flags, dreadlocks, colorful clothes), some cultists (the Humanist Movement, and some ladies from a Christian group all clad like angels with wings, see their flag on the photo above the fold) -- the kind of 'unserious' people so many 'decent people' don't like to associate with, yet just these looney people are tireless in going to and organising every protest --, some non-whites; and old anti-fascists.

Protesters gather in Erzsébet square

We weren't without counter-protesters. I later read that one group actually attempted to join our rally, but left to stay on the sidelines after being told that they can join only if they leave their flag behind.

Later, a lone crazy old man would shake an Árpád-stripes-covered cowbell at us (earning laughter).

The red-white-striped "Árpád-stripes" flag marks the group of a dozen fascists, strategically positioned to menance protesters arriving by subway; but they seemed a bit lost.

As the crowd gathered, various on-topic music blared from the loudspeakers, from reggae to Chumbawamba's The Day The Nazi Died. The last was a bit strange, because anarchists criticise the hippies for advocating non-violence in face of Nazis (even if they themselves never attacked a far-right protest in Budapest violently).

Unconventionally, the organisers planned the event with one single, short speech, which was delivered by Tarka Magyar!'s speaker.

Writer-documentary director Kriszta Bódis speaks, media people swarm.

The organisers expected 100,000, and low turnout was the main object of discussion in the crowd. I was less surprised. Most 'decent' people think here, "this is not my problem", or, "I don't want to get into trouble" -- sadly, the historical consciousness is missing that just these attitudes led to the failure 70 or so years ago. Say in West Germany, citizens would make the point that they don't cede the street by turing out in greater numbers at counter-protests to every public far-right gathering (see for example two weeks ago in Cologne).

As for getting into trouble, police definitely did expect trouble. Though the organisers organised security for themselves -- you can see them in neon jackets on the left of the photo above the fold; I later read that they were from a security service founded by Gypsies --, police turned up in force.

The rally started 11 minutes late: only then were enough police squads, clad like Star Wars stormtroopers minus helmet, ready to entirely surround us...

As we started to march along Budapest's pomp street, Avenue Andrássy (a copy of the Champs-Elysées), which was also the route of the ill-fated Gay Parade, police would stop us, so that the crowd stays thickly together (easier to protect?...)

The crowd now fully on Avenue Andrássy. People moved in and out of it (myself, I forgot to recharge my camera's batteries and rushed into a still open supermarket).

Police followed the organisers' request for no cordons only regarding the route itself -- there were cordons in all side streets...

The crowd was swelling on as we marched on.

(This photo was the first success in several attempts when no one bumped into me, the camera pointed in the right direction as I held it in the air, and didn't move.)

The police line loosened up with time -- here is one of our stormtroopers:

Teflon body protection, gas pistol on the right hip, baton on the left, helmet in left hand; his colleagues also had gas masks -- scary, but given the precedents, I can't fault them for fearing the worst...

There were undercover policemen, too. When I again overtook the crowd, I overheard one of them telling to a uniformed officer to check six potential troublemakers. But from what I read afterwards, there were only two further cases of hecklers (and journalists assumed that it was the same group I photographed at the start).

Swelling to about 4-5,000 people (this time my own on-site estimate and that of reporters matched), we reached Heroes' Square. There, a concert was held that was originally planned as the closing event of the Gay Parade, but was cancelled during the rioting.

The front of the crowd curves from Avenue Andrássy towards the stage.

We filled up the Heroes' Square only to its third -- I have been to events filling it completely, not to speak of regular far-right rallies here that managed that until just a few years ago.

Throughout the rally, the emergence of any festival mood was greatly inhibited by a police(?) helicopter, filming us low enough to roar loudly.

Still, there were some interesting figures. I don't know what this group wanted to say by holding up eight paintings (here you see half of them):

Oh, by the way: again it showed that if a protest crowd is dense enough, a few smokers who can't hold back from lighting up are enough to produce conditions like in a small basement pub...

According to the media, PM Gyurcsány and a number of other politicians did turn up at the end, but I didn't meet upon any of them.

The event closed with a public vow and the waving of colourful garments towards the sky.