Ex PM Gyurcsany calls for building democratic opposition, western-type Hungary programme

The civil movement, which was launched in September 2008 at the initiative of then prime minister Gyurcsany, organised the demonstration against the ruling centre-right government s draft constitution, a vote on which is scheduled in Parliament for Monday.

    Addressing the crowd at a square near Parliament Gyurcsany said he hoped his Socialist party would succeed in embracing a wider range of people supporting democracy.

    He said a programme for a western-type civilian Hungary fully supported by voters was a prerequisite of a government-change and "the restoration of the republic", which, however, needed time.

    Gyurcsany accused current Prime Minister Viktor Orban of having betrayed the republic, as well as of squelching press freedom, using prosecution in parts for political purposes, intimidating courts, confining the freedom of the cultural and academic life and isolating Hungary from Europe and the rest of the world.

    He also accused Orban of ignorance over violence targeting the poorest, over the fact that

"guards with links to his political allies are marching up and down in the poorest towns and villages of Hungary."

    A video message was played at the rally showing renowned Hungarian intellectuals protesting against the new constitution, including philosopher Agnes Heller, writers Gyorgy Konrad and Rudolf Ungvary, former data-protection ombudsman Laszlo Majtenyi and health state secretary of the first Orban government, Erzsebet Pusztai.

    Peter Szijjarto, spokesman of the Prime Minister, said in reaction to Saturday s protest that the new supreme law would protect Hungary from "such severe political crimes as those committed by the governments of the Gyorcsany era." 

    The current government s Szell Kalman fiscal plan will help "overcome the state s indebtedness and therefore the life of the Hungarian people will improve," he added.