State television continues to ban all opposition MPs — Hungary moves towards national strike

Thirteen opposition Members of the Hungarian Parliament spent all night camping out at the headquarters of Hungary’s public broadcasting authority, with the taxpayer-funded television steadfast in its refusal to afford anyone except Fidesz-KDNP politicians air time.  MP László Varjú ended up in hospital early this morning and his body is full of bruises from a physical altercation with security personnel at the television station who ejected him by force from the public building. The physical attack against 57 year old Mr. Varjú horrified his opposition colleagues in parliament. In protest, opposition MPs decided to lay down on their stomachs, with their hands behind their heads, on the floor of MTVA headquarters. These scenes are absolutely unprecedented in the history of post-1990 Hungary.

Opposition MPs on the floor in the headquarters of Hungarian State Television.

As is standard to the world’s other banana republic dictatorships, Hungarian state television’s only excuse for not allowing opposition MP’s to air grievances about the contentious overtime law, and for forcefully having them ejected from the premises, is that nobody seems to have any authority to do give them air time, and the one person who does–Dániel Papp–is conveniently missing in action.

On Monday afternoon, for the fifth time in one week, thousands of Hungarians took to the streets to protest. Like on Sunday, most congregated outside the public broadcaster in Óbuda. Meanwhile Monday evening, Fidesz propaganda conglomerate Mediaworks, headquartered on Bécsi út, was reportedly concerned about action by demonstrators against their building. On Monday night, activists affiliated with Momentum  marched towards the headquarters of the ruling party’s news channel, HírTV. Riot police showed up by the time they arrived.

The outrageous overtime law, mostly known by people outside Fidesz as the slave law, has accomplished what nothing else has in nearly nine years: the entire opposition, and thousands of young Hungarians who thus far have steered clear of opposition parties, is united as one. Talk of whether DK and MSZP ought to cooperate with Jobbik, or whether young Hungarians or Momentum are willing to be seen as cooperating with Ferenc Gyurcsány all seem like completely esoteric subjects that nobody has the luxury to debate.

In a related development, Hungary’s major labour unions have announced that they are planning for nationwide strike action on Friday, if MTVA continues to strip the opposition MPs of airtime. László Kordás, representing the Hungarian Alliance of Labour Unions, confirmed that workers would begin strike action by blocking roads and entrances to major industrial complexes in Hungary. The goal is to obstruct the work of all major corporations that plan to take advantage of the new laws allowing for 400 hours of overtime work. Mr. Kordás confirmed that they are prepared to escalate the situation in the direction of a national strike.

One hopes that Europeans and North Americans who still think that it is at all appropriate to engage in dialogue with the representatives of the Orbán regime will think again after the most recent developments in Hungary. If nothing else, the photograph of opposition MPs lying on the floor and news of one being brutally assaulted, should be enough to dissuade them.

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