The New Opposition in Hungary

On January 1, 2012, Hungary's new constitution went into effect. On the evening of January 2, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and President Pál Schmitt,¹ surrounded by members of their Fidesz government and supporters, held a gala evening celebration at the State Opera in central Budapest. But the entering into force of the new Fundamental Law was not an accomplishment celebrated by everyone. Outside the neo-Renaissance building along Andrássy Avenue—cordoned off at a slight distance—tens of thousands gathered in the cold. Many of Hungary's liberal opposition groups were present, as well as individuals from the far-right Jobbik party,² and this convergence resulted in minor clashes. The New Year's demonstration focused on the new Constitution, but it also addressed the nearly two-year-long process by which the Fidesz party,³ after its election in April 2010—and subsequent attainment of a supermajority in the Hungarian Parliament—is viewed to be dismantling the country's democracy built over the last twenty years.

That Monday night's protest, however, was far from being an isolated event. Rather, it was one of a long series of rallies that began in winter 2010 and have galvanized the Hungarian opposition. These civic actions have targeted a wide range of interrelated issues, from the country's new Constitution, media laws, and the undermining of the judiciary, to the firing of journalists and theater directors and the closing of an important radio station. Hungary's opposition groups are diverse and represent a wide range of political views, but taken together they reflect a civic drive to contest what may well be the country's most controversial reforms since the democratic transition in 1989. An overview of some of the demonstrations, which have followed the government's recent major political initiatives, will give a better sense of these events.

2. Budapest, Margit Bridge, 2011

On Sunday October 23, 2011, the fifty-fifth anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising, a major opposition rally against Hungary's new media legislation took place at Budapest's Margit Bridge and drew a large crowd, estimated at between 80,000 and 100,000. The gathering was notably heterogeneous: there were thousands of young people, but men and women old enough to remember the arrival of Soviet troops assembled first, and they occupied the space behind the metal barriers that faced the stage. The event was organized by a loose-knit community of activists, headed up by "One Million for the Freedom of Press in Hungary," a Facebook group that came into existence after Fidesz introduced the Media Law Package, the first of its major legislations. Drafted right after the party came to power, the structure of the new Hungarian media authority and laws have serious implications for freedom of speech and continue to draw sharp criticism both domestically and internationally.

In connection with this October demonstration, I met with Éva Simon, a lawyer and specialist on the Media Law Package from the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, a watchdog NGO that has been strongly critical of the legislation. In the bright cosmopolitan environment of a local café called California Coffee, Simon discussed the background of the new laws: "While there was general agreement that a new Media Law was needed due to technological changes, no one expected this." And indeed the scope and political impact of the new legislation have continued to worry organizations like the HCLU.

While often described as Hungary's "new Media Law," Fidesz's Media Law Package consists in fact of a series of amendments, acts, and resolutions passed by the government starting in July 2010. The sequence of steps taken to enact them is significant in the way it foreshadowed similar initiatives to follow. On July 6, 2010, the Fidesz-dominated parliament voted to amend the former Constitution's Article 61, which ruled against "monopolies in the media": a safeguard against single-party domination of the press. The original language of the article was replaced with a clause that stated that Hungary's public service broadcasting "shall be monitored by an autonomous administrative authority operating with members...