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Apparently, there was more than what I saw in front: earlier the right-of-Jobbik far-right circled around the police cordon via alleys and into the Milla protest, and there have been arrests. Then, after the protests, part of these guys joined part of the (according to press reports) "few thousand" Jobbik protesters in a storming of the bank center where the IMF's Hungarian representative has his office. They blew up a few petards but left without much of a fight when police turned up in strength.

The right-of-Jobbik guys then moved on to the old public TV headquarters (place of the first 2006 riot).

Earlier in the day, the Polish hard-right delegation that came for the Fidesz rally toured Budapest, passing the same spot where Milla would hold its protest.

As for the Fidesz rally itself. The place was in front of the parliament building, where Szolidaritás held its rally ten days ago, too. The government played a dirty trick on them, too: just after the announcement, they had to tear up the pavement on half the place. But miraculously, the place was accessible again today:

Orbán echoed the slogan of the first pro-Fidesz rally back in January: "We will not become a colony". How do you counter-act the impression of a pensioner army if you'r Fidesz's spinmeister? By putting a bunch of young people behind Orbán...

As for the numbers game. Milla organisers claimed 130,000 people, the (Fidesz-controlled) national wire service claimed "tens of thousands" at the Milla event and 250,000 at the Fidesz rally.

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

by DoDo on Thu Mar 15th, 2012 at 06:40:10 PM EST
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