Fidesz Removes Illegal Police Cordon Around the Hungarian Parliament

Created: 28th September, 2007 14:41 | Last updated: 8th November, 2007 20:01	print	send

The cordon was erected by the police as the entire area around the buildings of Parliament was declared "operational field" by the head of the Budapest Police following anti-government street protests last October. Several intellectuals, NGOs as well as high ranking representatives of FIDESZ and other political parties have since repeatedly demanded the removal of the cordon without any results.

The emptied, cordoned Kossuth square in front of the Hungarian Parliament, inaccessible for the public, is the most outrageous example of ignoring the rule of law and threatening Hungarian democratic values. The square was cleared of demonstrators on 23rd October 2006 - on the very day of the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution. Subsequently, it was declared an "operational field" by the Police and it was cordoned off by a metal barrier for an undetermined duration after month of peaceful demonstrations against the government. Its closure for the last hundred days contradicts to the same extent the regulations in force, the Constitution, as well as the basic norms of the European Union. It is unreasonable; therefore its only objective is to restrict civil liberties and to intimidate people with different views from that of the government. "The fundamental freedoms, the freedom of peaceful assembly, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression are the basic requirements of the rule of law and democracy. They need to be protected whenever endangered, as these civil liberties are all about our own freedom. Therefore we have to act consistently for free access to the Kossuth square, the symbol of Hungarian freedom and democracy", said Kinga Gál MEP, Vice-President of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament. FIDESZ Members of the both the Hungarian and the European Parliament have pledged to renounce their right of immunity should the authorities try and prosecute them for removing the cordon. Following months of police ignorance of calls to dismount it, civil disobedience by parliamentarians was the only way to illustrate that the situation was untenable. Following the intervention of the FIDESZ MPs and MEPs, the Police re-mounted the cordon around Kossuth square. Police forces also prevented peaceful demonstrators to enter the square, several people were harassed and arrested.

fidesz.hu