Thousands participate in pro-EU, anti-Russia march

Christian Keszthelyi

The recently formed Momentum Mozgalom (Momentum Movement) held a pro-EU, anti-Russia march attended by thousands in Budapest during yesterdayʼs May 1 national holiday, which was also the 13th anniversary of Hungary joining the EU. Momentum has announced it will run as a political party in the 2018 general election.

(Photo: MTI / Zoltán Balogh)

Momentum — which surfaced five months ago with its successful signature collection campaign for a referendum on Budapest’s since abandoned Olympics bid — promised to publish its program by October 15, and to run in the elections to be held next year, Hungarian online news portal index.hu reported.

According to on-field reports, the May 1 march was quiet and peaceful, except for occasional chanting of pro-EU and anti-Russia and anti-governing Fidesz party slogans. Estimates said thousands of people marched through Andrássy út to Hősök tere (Heroes’ square), where leaders of Momentum gave speeches.

Momentum speakers condemned the government’s “Stop Brussels” national consultation campaign as “hate-mongering”. Momentum’s Tamás Soproni said he was “angered” about the campaign and the government. He said he believes that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wants to “link Hungary to Russia”, and it is all politicians’ joint responsibility to prevent this from happening.

Edina Potyondy stressed during her speech that Hungary has developed in the past 13 years thanks to funds from the EU, while Orbán and Fidesz “act as teenegers: If anything happens there is somebody else to blame, but pocket money comes good anytime”, according to index.hu. She called on to all the Hungarian youth studying abroad to come home and help “kickstart” Hungary.

András Fekete-Győr, the president of Momentum, said that while Orbán “wants to stop Brussels”, his new party would like to “kickstart Hungary and catch up with Brussels”. He added that Orbán wants to “close down the country and undermine the press because he is afraid that his incompetence will be revealed and that development [in the country] is not due to him”, index.hu reported. </s> Youth movement Momentum led a march of a few thousand from Szabadság tér (Freedom Square) to Heroes’ Square on Monday night, culminating in a rally where the group’s leaders declared that “there is one year, there is hope” for change in the 2018 parliamentary elections.

The demonstration focused heavily on Russian influence in Hungary, with the crowd chanting anti-Kremlin slogans and organizers handing out “Let’s Stop Moscow” and “Let’s Stop Orbán” stickers. As protesters marched along Andrassy boulevard, passing the Russian embassy compound—which was surrounded by lines of riot police—demonstrators booed and shouted.

“I’ve heard enough nightmare stories from my parents, I don’t want Orbán and Putin to bring back that world,” Momentum activist Tamás Soproni told the crowd on Heroes’ Square. Soproni referred directly to Russian intelligence activities on Hungarian territory, as well as alleged secret deals surrounding the Paks nuclear power plant and the appearance of a Chechen who recently threatened a Hungarian activist. He also criticized the Hungarian government for formally deeming Russia not to be a threat to Hungary.

András Fekete-Győr, Momentum’s leader, also highlighted the Russian threat, but focused most of his speech on the need to combat fear in Hungarian society.

“Orbán creates fear because he is afraid… most of all he is afraid of us, people,” Fekete-Győr told the protesters. Urging the crowd to put aside differences, he pledged that Momentum will help those who fear losing their jobs or facing other kinds of retribution for speaking out against the Orbán government. “We will protect you,” he said.

The protest displayed signs of a high level of organization, with activists carrying Momentum flags and the stage lighting even matching the movement’s color, purple.

But despite the relatively high turnout and professional-style organization, the movement’s precise ideological direction and policy aspirations remain unclear. While Momentum’s leader introduced his speech by saying that he will now explain what must be done over the next year, no concrete policy ideas were mentioned. According to Fekete-Győr, Momentum will continue travelling around the country to hold a “real consultation”, and plans to present its policy agenda in the fall.

Following the end of the formal protest, a group of several hundred demonstrators moved toward the nearby headquarters of ruling party Fidesz, and from there marched to the city center, and as in several recent protests, occupied Oktogon intersection. As of 10:20pm local time, protesters were still in the streets of central Budapest.

Budapest police are now implementing a strategy of targeting street protesters who display leadership. While protesters walking on Andrássy and occupying Oktogon are not detained, protesters who try to direct the crowd—for example by calling out a new location where protesters should head—are targeted. A young man who called out “Oktogon” repeatedly on a megaphone was pulled aside and asked to present identification papers.

The Momentum-led protest notably did not formally include any other political parties or movements. Earlier in the day, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and the Democratic Coalition (DK) each held its own event in City Park, a May 1 tradition. Momentum plans to run as a political party in next year’s election. </s> Thousands of Hungarians marched across central Budapest on May 1 in a show of support for the European Union, protesting against what they described as a rise in Russian influence under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The rally follows a series of major demonstrations in Budapest in recent weeks, triggered by a new law inspired by Russia that would drive out of Hungary a top university founded by U.S. financier George Soros.

Momentum, an upstart political movement, called for the May Day rally, where an estimated 10,000 protesters chanted "Europe, not Moscow" as they passed the Russian Embassy. It announced it would run candidates in parliamentary elections next April.

Orban is "driving the nation toward Moscow," party chairman Andras Fekete-Gyor said. "Instead of the rich, modern and free Europe, he sets the poor, oppressed, and underdeveloped Russia as the example for our country."

The group gained national prominence with a campaign that torpedoed Orban's bid for Budapest to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Orban, a former critic of Moscow, changed tack after returning to power in a 2010 landslide. In a key speech, he called for transforming Hungary into an "illiberal state," citing Russia and Turkey as templates for success.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters </s> Thousands of Hungarians rallied in Budapest Monday, chanting “Europe, not Moscow” in support of the EU and against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom protesters said is too close to Russia.

Orbán has been accused by opponents of cosying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has visited Budapest twice in the last three years.

Carrying EU flags, the anti-Moscow slogans rang out among the crowd, estimated by local media at 10,000, as they passed the Russian embassy.

Thousands marching for democracy and against Orban regime in Budapest #Hungary pic.twitter.com/4TPqXJSjJX — Lili Bayer (@liliebayer) May 1, 2017

Orbán signed a controversial loan deal with Putin in 2014 to finance the expansion of Hungary’s only nuclear facility.

Hungary's Orbán: We'll choose our own path with Russia Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, seen by some in Brussels and Washington as cosying up to the Kremlin, said his country would not be forced to pick one side or another in a Cold War-style standoff in Europe.

The same year, the Hungarian leader also said that rather than liberal democracy he favoured building an “illiberal state” and praised Russia as a model.

Trócsányi: 'There are different interpretations of democracy' Critics of Hungary “lack objectivity” and it is a “fantasy” to say the press is not free in this country, said László Trócsányi, Hungary’s Minister of Justice. The Orbán loyalist maintains that democracy can exist in both neo-liberal and “more conservative” contexts. He spoke to Georgi Gotev for EURACTIV France.

Rights groups say Orbán has copied some of Putin’s methods by clamping down on independent institutions, NGOs and press freedoms.

“In Hungary, a system of fear is being built on the Russian model,” the rally’s organisers Momentum, a political party formed by young activists, said before the march began.

Momentum was set up in March after a signature drive it organised forced Orbán to drop Budapest’s bid to host the Olympics in 2024. </s> A demonstration with the slogan “We belong to Europe”, organised by the Momentum Movement, was held in the capital on Monday evening, on the 13th anniversary of Hungary’s EU accession.

Momentum Movement leader András Fekete-Győr told the crowd assembled in Heroes’ Square that his party would run in the 2018 general election. He said the party would announce its election programme on October 15.

Fekete-Győr said that over the coming year Momentum would do everything it can to “tear down the regime of fear”. </s> Thousands of protesters in Hungary rejected the government's growing ties to Russia on Sunday, the 13th anniversary of Hungary's European Union membership.

Participants marched through downtown Budapest carrying Hungarian and European flags, shouting "Europe! Europe!" and reciting slogans against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government. The Momentum Movement, a new political party, organized the event.

Orban is "driving the nation toward Moscow," party chairman Andras Fekete-Gyor said. "Instead of the rich, modern and free Europe, he sets the poor, oppressed and underdeveloped Russia as the example for our country."

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Hungary for the second time in two years. Critics say a draft law seen designed to stigmatize and intimidate civic groups that receive foreign funding is similar to a law Russia already has.

Moscow is also expanding Hungary's Soviet-built nuclear power plant while loaning Hungary 10 billion euros ($10.9 billion), about 80 percent of the project's cost. Hungary already depends on Russia for much of its imported oil and gas.

Fekete-Gyor also criticized the Hungarian government's "Let's Stop Brussels" campaign, which claims among other things that the EU wants Hungary to raise energy prices and take in potentially large numbers of illegal migrants.

The protest was the latest against Orban's government in recent weeks.

Previous demonstrations have been held over the new requirements for NGOs that receive foreign funding and against amendments to the country's higher education law that could lead to the move or closure of Budapest's Central European University.

The European Union, the Council of Europe, as well as the European People's Party to which Orban's Fidesz party belongs, have called on the government to stick to European rules and suspend or modify the both laws.

"The constant attacks on Europe, which Fidesz has launched for years, have reached a level we cannot tolerate," EPP president Joseph Daul said after meeting Orban in Brussels on Saturday.

Despite the protests, one of which attracted some 70,000 people, Fidesz retains a large lead in opinion polls one year ahead of the next parliamentary election. </s> Thousands of Hungarians have marched across central Budapest in a show of support for the European Union, protesting against what a new political movement sees as a creeping rise in Russian influence under prime minister Viktor Orbán.

The rally follows a series of major demonstrations in Budapest in recent weeks, triggered by a new law that would drive out of Hungary a top university founded by US financier George Soros.

Momentum, an upstart political movement that called for Monday’s rally dubbed “We belong to Europe,” announced it would run at a parliamentary election next April.

“Healthcare, education, [public] transportation are failing,” András Fekete-Győr, the Momentum leader, told demonstrators. “We struggle to make things work every day.”

Fekete-Győr added that the group would unveil its election manifesto in October.

The group gained national prominence with a referendum campaign that torpedoed Orbán’s bid for Budapest to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Orbán, a former critic of Moscow, changed tack after returning to power in a 2010 landslide. In a key speech, he called for transforming Hungary into an “illiberal state,” citing Russia and Turkey as templates for success.

He still holds a firm lead in opinion polls. But on Saturday he told leaders of his centre-right EU political group he would comply with demands from Brussels to change measures branded an attack on academic freedom.

“Viktor Orbán’s performance at the European parliament has shown that it is not only Hungarians who are tired of Orbán and his Fidesz party,” said Daniel Kiss, a 23-year-old university student, who carried EU flags at the rally with his girlfriend.

“He blasts the EU, but at the same time we need European money to stay afloat,” he said. “We have had enough.”

Orbán has said Hungary should remain a member of the EU, but is also seeking reforms and wants to avoid a further loss of national sovereignty.

In the past seven years, Orbán has eliminated checks on his power by taking control of the public media, curbing the powers of the constitutional court, and placing loyalists in top positions at public institutions.

But Orbán’s unorthodox fiscal stabilisation measures have slashed the budget deficit, sent unemployment to record lows and Budapest forecasts economic growth above 4% this year and next, which would be the fastest rates since Orbán took power.

Despite the street protests, the fragmented Hungarian opposition so far looks unable to mount a serious challenge.

A survey in April by thinktank Zavecz Research put support for Orbán’s Fidesz party at 27% of voters. The Socialist party scored 13%, the nationalist Jobbik 11% and Momentum just 2%.

Even some protesters, like 26-year-old Bence, who wore a mask of Vladimir Putin on the back of his head, were sceptical of a breakthrough next April.

“In such an election system, even Momentum or some other smaller opposition party getting into parliament would be a big deal,” he said. “But that is just what this is all about.” </s> MOSCOW (AP) — The Latest on Russia-Ukraine tensions (all times local):

A Russian activist says she has visited Ukrainian seamen who have been transferred to a Moscow jail.

Russian border guards in the Black Sea near Crimea fired at three Ukrainian vessels on Sunday, seizing the ships and their crews. Russia says they have violated its border while Ukraine says the vessels were in compliance with international maritime law. Two dozen Ukrainian seamen have been ordered to stay in custody for the next two months.

Russian TV station Dozhd on Friday quoted Kogershyn Sagiyeva, a member of the Moscow oversight council which is allowed to inspect prisons, as saying that 21 seamen have been transferred to the Moscow Lefortovo jail while three other seamen are in a hospital in another jail. She said she met with some of the seamen and they appeared to be in good shape.

European Council President Donald Tusk says the EU is expected to extend sanctions on Russia over its "totally unacceptable" seizure of Ukrainian ships and their crews near Crimea.

Tusk said Friday that "Europe is united in its support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," calling the standoff "a cause of great concern."

Speaking on the sidelines of a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, he urged the leaders meeting there to discuss points of tension including "Russian aggression in Ukraine."

He didn't elaborate on the sanctions or other measures the EU might take.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is among the leaders involved at the G-20. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame over the ship incident.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban says his country is supporting Ukraine in the latest escalation of tensions with Russia.

Speaking through a translator in Prague after meeting his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis on Friday, Orban says: "The Hungarian position is clear. We are a pro-Ukrainian government."

But he added that "The peculiarity of the situation is that there is a Ukraine-friendly government in Hungary, while in Ukraine there is an anti-Hungarian government."

Orban's statement comes amid a dispute between Ukraine and his country over the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. But Orban said his support for Ukraine is not going to change.

Orban is considered to have one of the best relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin's among European Union politicians.

Russia's foreign ministry says that Moscow is not going to mirror the travel ban that Ukraine has imposed on Russian men.

Ukrainian officials announced earlier on Friday that all Russian men aged between 16 and 60 will be barred from entering Ukraine for the 30-day duration of martial law. The statement is the latest step in the escalation of the long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine which began in 2014 with Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Russia is not planning to impose similar measures on Ukrainians. Zakharova blamed the Ukrainian government for implementing a policy that hurts ordinary people.

The Ukrainian intelligence agency is searching the home of the father superior of Kiev's biggest and oldest monastery which is part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ihor Guskov, chief of staff of the SBU intelligence agency, told reporters on Friday that its officers are searching the home of Father Pavlo, who leads the Pechersk Monastery in Kiev. He said the cleric is suspected of "inciting hatred."

The Ukrainian church, which has been part of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries, moved close to forming an independent church — fueled by the conflict with Russia Ukraine's Orthodox communities earlier this year.

There are currently three Orthodox communities in Ukraine including two breakaway churches. Ukrainian authorities sought to portray the Russian Orthodox clerics in Ukraine as supporting separatists.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have escalated since last weekend, when Russian border guards opened fire on three Ukrainian naval vessels near Crimea and captured their crews.

Ukraine's president says that the country has barred Russian men between 16 and 60 from traveling to the country.

The move comes as the long-simmering conflict between the two nations escalated in the Black Sea on Sunday. Russian border guards opened fire on and captured three Ukrainian vessels and their 24-member crew.

President Petro Poroshenko tweeted Friday that the restrictions on Russian travelers have been taken in order to prevent the Russians from forming "private armies" fighting on Ukrainian soil.

A Russian government-appointed ombudswoman says the three commanders of the Ukrainian vessels captured near the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula last weekend are being transferred to Moscow.

The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine bubbled over Sunday when Russian border guards opened fired on three Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea. The Russians then captured the 24-member crew.

Russia says the Ukrainians had violated its border while Ukraine says its ships were acting in line with international maritime rules.

The Tass news agency on Friday quoted Russian government-appointed ombudswoman Lyudmila Lubina as saying that the vessels' commanders are being transferred to Moscow for interrogation. The other 21 have also been transferred away from Crimea, but it wasn't immediately clear to where.

A Crimea court earlier this week ruled to keep the Ukrainian seamen behind bars for two months pending the investigation. </s> Protesters chant anti-Putin and anti-Kadyrov slogans at Moscow procession said to have been attended by 15,200 people

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Thousands of protesters marched in Moscow and other Russian cities on Sunday to mark two years since the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down near the Kremlin.

Five men including a security services officer who reported to the leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya are on trial for murdering the outspoken Putin critic but many fear whoever ordered the killing will not be brought to justice.

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Police said 5,000 people had participated in the demonstration in the capital, but a group counting each person who passed the metal detectors at the beginning of the column said 15,200 had marched. Among them were prominent opposition leaders such as former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who was assaulted before the march began.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Participants in the Moscow march. Photograph: Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

“There are two components [of this march], the first is the commemoration of our comrade and my friend Boris Nemtsov, who was cruelly killed outside the Kremlin, and the second is the principles that we defined with Boris and our struggle so that Russia would be a real democratic state,” Kasyanov told the Guardian at the head of the column.

Moments later, an unidentified man threw green ink in Kasyanov’s face, a popular tactic to demean liberal opposition activists. Police quickly detained the assailant and led him away.

Kasyanov had a cake thrown in his face and was pelted with eggs last year after the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, posted a video showing the former PM in the crosshairs of a gun.

Police detained an opposition organiser after a verbal row between him and members of the pro-Kremlin National Freedom Movement, reported OVD Info, which monitors detention of activists. Law enforcement officers also confiscated some posters that referred to Putin by name, marchers said.

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“This is a commemorative march, but it’s not a funeral march,” said Nemtsov’s fellow activist Ilya Yashin. “We didn’t gather here to cry, we gathered here to make demands, we gathered to demand Nemtsov’s murderers be brought to justice, the trigger men, the organisers and those who ordered the hit.”

Other cities also held Nemtsov marches, with a reported 2,000 people marching in St Petersburg.

The events coincided with the release from prison of the opposition activist Ildar Dadin after more than a year, during which time he made serious allegations of torture. He was the first and so far only person convicted under a harsh recent law that criminalises repeated unsanctioned protests.

He was released after several days of delays that former Kremlin insider Gleb Pavlovsky said had intended to prevent him from attending Sunday’s march in Moscow, where people held Russian flags, placards with Nemtsov’s face and quotes from the former deputy PM such as: “Bring back elections, you creeps!”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The march in St Petersburg. Photograph: Anatoly Maltsev/EPA

Some carried roses to lay at the spot where Nemtsov was shot, on a bridge next to the Kremlin. A small group of nationalists with black, yellow and white Russian imperial flags also joined in the march.

The front rows of the column chanted: “Our name is Boris Nemtsov!” while carrying a huge banner that read “Heroes don’t die! Russia will be free!” Other chants included “Putin is a thief,” “Putin is war,” and “Kadyrov to prison.”



“The organisers and those who ordered [Nemtsov’s killing] are, I’m deeply convinced, the political leadership and rulers of Chechnya,” said former MP Gennady Gudkov. “Today the federal authorities are covering for them. They are not bringing anyone to responsibility and slowing the investigation.”

Another colleague of Nemtsov, activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, left Russia for further treatment last week after surviving a poisoning attempt. In a Facebook post, he called on people to come to the march on Sunday.



On Monday activists who tend to the makeshift memorial to Nemtsov at the spot where he was shot said municipal workers had taken away all the flowers and pictures in the early hours. By late Monday morning, Nemtsov supporters flocked back to the bridge to bring more flowers.
The Momentum Movement holds a pro-EU, anti-Russia march attended by approximately 10,000 in Budapest, Hungary, chanting “Europe, not Moscow” in support of the EU and against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.