Riots rock Budapest on night before '56 anniversary

Hundreds of anti-government protesters faced off with police in downtown Budapest on the eve of the annual celebrations marking Hungary's failed 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. According to various news reports, the authorities detained a dozen individuals Monday night, while at least that many were injured in the disturbances, including three journalists.

The disorder was centered in the area of the Hungarian State Opera on Andrássy út, where Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and other dignitaries were attending a commemoration event. In advance of the Opera House gala the authorities announced that far-right groups would not be able to approach the building.

Undeterred by the tear gas canisters deployed by riot police, the protesters fired back with Molotov cocktails, bottles and cobblestones. During the melee several cars and a police water cannon vehicle were overturned.

Many of the protesters hid their faces with scarves, and some were heard shouting anti-Semitic slogans as well as anti-government chants.

The police reportedly asked journalists to leave the area after a photographer for the Reuters news agency was injured by a bottle thrown by a demonstrator.

The disturbances come a year after the widespread riots in Budapest during the most recent 1956 commemorations, sparked in by a row over a leaked speech by Gyurcsány in which he admitted that his government had lied about the state of the country's economy in order to secure re-election. The riots further polarized a country deeply divided between those, like Gyurcsány, who were supporters of the former Communist regime, and nationalists who see the current Socialist-led government as its direct and largely unreformed successor.

While the police are vowing to contain any further disturbances today, the most powerful disincentive to disorder is the weather, which as of 11:00 a.m. consisted of light rain and temperatures of 7C in downtown Budapest.

• Email
• Save to My Caboodle