BUDAPEST LIVE: WHAT YOU'RE THINKING, RIGHT NOW!

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We thought you'd like to read first hand accounts of what people in Budapest are experiencing. So here it is and don't be shy to post a comment if you feel a need to add something.

NowPublic Member ILI writes:

My name is Ili and I am 65 years old living in Budapest. I have
been through a lot of change here and I feel another one is about to
happen. And it should happen. We are all tired of hearing lies. It
seems all my life I have had to hear lies from the government. The
uncertainty grows, the distrust widens and soon what are we left with?

Many people I talk to welcome this act of demonstration for our rights
and to demand a fair government. The hooligans burning cars and
fighting with police do that at football games. We shouldn't pay so
much attention to their agenda. Of course the media will focus on that,
but the real focus is "What is going to happen now?"

The
truth is before this tape was made public, there was growing concern
and resentment towards reforms implemented by the Gyurcsany
government. Increase in taxes, health-care costs, increase in
university tuitions and not helping to support an aging popualtion
--like myself -- had stirred things up already. And then the tape
leaked. I think that most of us wanted to believe in our government,
but really it is no surprise that this has happened. As the PM said in
a television interview yesterday, " Most politicians have lied to their
people." We always knew there were lies, I don't understand why the
government was elected in the first place, and now its appropriate that
this happens.

balosarc also sent us
an email that illustrates how the Hungarian media is viewing the
situation. Here is an exerpt:

Fidesz to go ahead with Saturday’s rally

Fidesz’s crisis team yesterday decided to go ahead with Saturday’s rally

in Heroes Square. It said cancelling the meeting would “send the wrong message

to our own camp, which expects a more radical voice and must not show hesitancy

or weakness one week before the local elections.” Fidesz chairman Viktor Orbán

said “the October 1 local elections will be more than a municipal election,

they will be a referendum. We do not want the Gyurcsány package, or of provocations of violence.”

The crisis team includes: Orbán; Fidesz executive committee members; former caucus leader János Áder; former church adviser Zoltán Balogh; and Christian Democrat leader Zsolt Semjén. Orbán cancelled his campaign functions for today and Thursday. Speaking to the media for the first time since the Gyurcsány scandal broke out, Orbán said “Fidesz condemns violent action but continues to declare solidarity with those protest against government lies. If voters reject the lies and the austerity package on October 1, the Socialists will have to fire their prime minister and a cabinet of experts with a limited mandate should be established though he did not go into details. His words prompted Democratic Forum chairwoman Ibolya Dávid and Socialist caucus leader Ildikó Lendvai to separately condemn Orbán’s statement. Lendvai said Orbán ignores the fact that a cabinet cannot be dismissed at local elections. Free Democrat chairman Gábor Kuncze noted that those who took part in the vandalism are close to the opposition parties and urged Fidesz to condemn the attack.  Gyurcsany Refuses To Resign

Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány stressed that he will not resign at an

international press conference on Tuesday afternoon. He said “I am committed to

implementing reforms and will continues my campaign to explain that to ordinary

people.” Gyurcsány also called on the opposition to take a clear stand against

acts of violence and asked ordinary people not to support or to take part in

civil disturbances. He added that he feels support from the coalition and as

long as that continues he is determined to carry out the changes.

He explained:

“Never have I been more certain that Hungary should choose this party, one

which represents a turning point and reform. This is no revolution, nor is it

1956. This is desecration of our glorious national history.” Gyurcsány also

pointed out that criticism of the government which is answerable to the

democratically-elected Parliament does not provide legal or moral authorisation

to break into national institutions. In response to critical remarks made by

President László Sólyom, Gyurcsány said he agrees that all must answer moral

questions and in his view the left wing currently provide the right answer.

Socialist

caucus leader Ildikó Lendvai said the caucus condemns those who resorted to

unlawful methods and expects Fidesz and the Christian Democrats to firmly dissociate

themselves from those of their supporters who took part in the disturbances. She

also lay the responsibility on those who for quite some time “have taken

disputes to the streets.”

Another source has emerged from the Budapest scene. balosarc
is a close friend and a student presently studying politics in
Budapest. He gave me his analysis of the events unfolding on the
streets in Hungary via email.

The bottom line is this: the people doing all the "rioting"
are right wing nationalist, racist, hooligan thugs who have absolutely
no political program that is in any way worthy of condoning, let alone
celebrating. A visibly large number of them support MIEP, the right
wing nationalist party, and actually I would venture that among those
doing the rioting, those who support the center right party FIDESZ are
in a large minority. These are simply apolitical, lumpen hooligan
thugs who want to relive the glory of the 1956 revolution - the
catalyzing event which has been claimed more or less outright by the
right wing (especially the nationalist right wing), even though '56 had
as much to do with right wing ideology as George Bush is a Christian.

These
people would and will use any excuse possible to bring their hooligan
tactics to Gyurcsany's front door. As day broke yesterday in Szabadsag
ter and as well in Blaha Luiza Ter today the evidence was in the
pudding so to speak as empty beer bottles, and vomit were laid out for
all to see. The first thing these thugs did when they entered the
Hungarian state television building was to raid the kitchen, looting
the deli cases and pantries. As I type this, there are buses coming
from Debrecen full of more thugs with the same mentality coming to have
their own invented glory by smashing some windows or lighting a car on
fire.

The sad thing is that this is the face of what has been a
significant seismic shock for the overall political culture of
Hungary. That, in and of itself, I think is positive. In other words,
while we must continue to abhor these hooligan thugs and everything
they stand for - and perhaps also, for some people, their tactics - we
must continue to support the general act of holding a government
responsible for its words and deeds, if not necessarily standing arm to
arm with such primitive thugs as they burn, flail and pillage. In an
ideal world, such a movement should be composed of a more diverse
cross-section of Hungarian society. Students, intellectuals, and
workers of a leftist persuasion should now be shouting loudly for a New
Left Party. As it stands now however, most Hungarians believe that
Gyurcsany's sins pale in comparison to the hooligan thugs who by any
measure shame the memory of the '56 Revolution. Consequently, the
stance of "the left" in Hungary is to distance themselves from the
"mob" and support, more or less, MSZP, SZDSZ if not also Gyurcsany.

Finally,
with all the references to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution being thrown
around in the media, it should also be noted that the initial violent
mobilizations occurred at Szabadsag ter. - "Liberty Square" - which
houses not only the Hungarian state-owned TV station and the only
remaining monument to Soviet "liberation" (read: occupation), but also
the US Embassy. The level of irony couldn't be more telling. Here you
have violent riots caused by what? By a politician admitting that he
LIED? Well what else is new? Meanwhile in calm serenity across the
square sits the embassy of the most militaristic, aggressively fascist
country on the planet! Please!

Which is relevant to the memory
of the '56 revolution, thus perhaps meriting a similar response: a
politician being candid in admitting he lied, or the leader of Imperial
America invoking the memory of the 1956 Revolution (as he did here in
June) in order to repudiate everything that revolution stood for, and
to further justify his barbarous, ever-continuing litany of predation
and atrocity? The 1956 revolution in Hungary was an armed, militant
guerilla struggle for self-determination, and to free Hungary from
foreign military occupation. Well, who is playing the role of
"occupier" in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere? Such an invocation has
implications, and in my view makes Gyurcsany's comments pale in
comparison to what SHOULD ignite rage in Hungary.

I have also been in contact with capital33... This citizen reporter was on the scene in Budapest. He captured this photograph showing the initial protests after news of the audio tape broke. He reported:

"They cut out the centers of the flags because that's where the

communist star once was and it's a symbol of the 1956 revolution. So

they are reinvoking that image as a call to oust this Prime Minister.

I've got some shots of the police in riot gear standing by as well but

the uploads are taking waaay too long."

In
the evening after the initial protest he stayed on to witness the riot
police using a tank with water cannons which sprayed the crowd. He also
witnessed the doors of Parliment being torn down, and cars exploding.
He is hoping to have more photographs ready by the morning.

I have been in contact with kisdobos...Through email he told me that he was on the scene yesterday and that he is a blogger from Budapest, Hungary.

You can view his original blog entry here...

Here is an approved version of his blog translation into English:

"Are
we really this disillusioned with our politics? My brother and I are
watching the reactions on TV to this "huge ball" that the PM Gyurcsány
threw in the air and the first reaction of both of us is: now, this is
the first time a politician has been honest! Sitting in front of the TV
it was all so surreal I felt it couldn’t have happened but in this
country. The PM of our country is compromised by a recording, which
reveals him confide in his trusted circle - God only knows why - in an
outspoken and vulgar manner that "we fucked it up" and "we lied
morning, night and evening" just to win the election, moreover that
they have no accomplisments to be proud of about the last 2 years of
their rule.

Listening to MSZP’s Lendvai, who always acts like an
elementary school teacher, react to the leak, I couldn’t help letting
out a confused, almost embarrassed chuckle. ”I don’t mind that the
recording has been leaked” (you couldn’t have been luckier), ”the PM
talked about the lies of the whole political elite (haha), and that
they haven't done anything in the last 2 years means in terms of
reducing taxes (this is vaudevillian entertainment, man).

Gyurcsány,
intoxicated by either the cathartic content of his words or simply by
two bottles of Tokay wine, explained himself on TV with a confidence
overshadowing that of Bill Clinton when he claimed before Congress that
”I did not have sexual relations with that woman!" The world did not
stop revolving back then, as we learned that oral sex isn't really sex,
neither did it now, since we now came to understand that reforms can’t
be done in Hungary without lying away the facts and the actions needed
for them. (Sidenote: but really, could this have been done any other
way?)

This is surreal – I have to repeat myself. "The PM lied
and I'm going to tell the nursery school teachers" - announces the
anchor of the right-leaning Hir TV. The appealingly ruthless anchor of
the state television, Olga Kálmán is uncharacteristically lenient this
time, and won't spank him and lets him run. But still, the most surreal
part is that I feel that in Hungary millions are relieved now that it's
clear that one man and his regime screwed us over. Because this was a
special, one-time event, and it’s not going to happen again, I noted in
my diary: "Hungarian politics, today, on September 17th, 2006 – for
once in our history – was playing with open cards!

a friend in Hungary wrote the following email to me after I emailed her about the situation:

"It's
scary how fast things escalated to violence. Do you guys know the
details? It's the football hooligans that are causing most of the
burning of the cars etc, not those of us that are interetsed in
politics. There is a cabinet/government meeting on Sunday and most are
expecting the "peaceful" demonstrations to turn violent again. It
doesn't look good."