The last straw: the Hungarian police and the judiciary

By Eva S. Balogh on July 8, 2008 · Filed Under Politics 

Prime Minister Gyurcsány stood alone in front of the parliament building Sunday morning and announced that the mob attack on a peaceful demonstration the day before was the last straw. Hungarian society has had enough. It is time to show that the majority will not tolerate a few thousand troublemakers’ constant threat to public peace and order. He suggested that on September 2 there should be a mass demonstration. In addition he asked the president, the speaker of the house, the chief justice of the constitutional court, the chief justice of the supreme court, and the chief prosecutor to get together with him to devise a course of action to put an end to lawlessness.

To tell you the truth, I don’t believe that this is the right course of action. I simply don’t know what either a demonstration or a meeting of the chief dignitaries would achieve. I suspect mighty little. A lot of words, a few thousand people, a few thousand policemen defending the few thousand peaceful demonstrators and then comes October 23, 2008, and everything goes its merry way again.

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