Thousands have rallied in Budapest to demonstrate against controversial changes to the country's labor laws. Hungary's largest trade union has threatened to call a general strike on January 19.
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Some 10,000 people rallied outside the parliament building in Budapest on Saturday against labor reforms approved last month by the right-wing nationalist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Hungarians are angry about what they call the new "slave law" that allows employers to demand hundreds of hours of overtime a year and delay payment for up to three years.
The protesters chanted "We will not be slaves" and "Dirty Fidesz," referring to Orban's party, as they marched in near-freezing temperatures past the parliament building on the banks of the Danube.
Orban and Fidesz have been able to hang on to a two-thirds majority in the Hungarian parliament by taking control of the media and making changes to the country's election system.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe
Artist and filmmaker Tomáš Rafa series "New Nationalism" about the rise of extremist tendencies in Europe is currently on display in New York. Jan Tomes talked to him about his project.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Cleaning up
Tomáš Rafa began his project "New Nationalism" in 2009 when segregation walls were built in cities in eastern Slovakia. Three years later, he got a permission to organize an event, during which Romani kids from Ostrovany painted the 120-meter-long and 3-meter-high wall that, in the words of the local mayor, prevents goods from being stolen by the people from the settlement.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Tear down the wall
"I wanted to show that the adaptation process needs much more attention and that problems can’t be solved by building a wall," said Rafa about his wall-painting project which also took him to Sečovce, Slovakia. The settlement, pictured here, has been described as the place with the worst social conditions among all Romani villages in Slovakia by the local authorities.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Rise of the far-right
In 2015, a selfie of Lutz Bachmann, the founder of the German anti-Islamic and nationalistic organization PEGIDA, posing as an Adolf Hitler lookalike, went viral in the the German press. This picture was taken by Rafa one year earlier in Dresden, both Pegida’s and Bachmann’s hometown, during a march of far-right extremists.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Igniting the fire
The decision by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to abandon ties with the European Union in favor of Russia triggered a series of demonstrations that eventually evolved into the EuroMaidan protests in early 2014. Rafa went to Ukraine again a few months later, this time to capture the siege of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Standing against facism
"In Germany and Austria, anti-fascist protests have a long tradition. People use them as the last, physical tool of resistance," says Rafa. This picture captures anti-fascist protests against the right-wing populist and national conservative political party FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria), which has strong ties to Germany’s AfD and Marine Le Pen’s National Front.
Image: Tomas Rafa
March to the gallows
Left-wing and right-wing protesters clashed in Prague on June 1, 2015. Some anti-Islamic sympathizers came to the demonstration carrying gallows and were allowed to march with them through the city center. The police failed to intervene and was heavily criticized by the public, politicians and media. To this day no one has been charged.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Protecting their freedom
Thousands of people gathered in Budapest recently to protest against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist policies after he pushed through legislation that may result in shutting down the Central European University founded by US-Hungarian investor George Soros who is one of Orban's main opponents.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Smoke screen
Thousands of Poles celebrated the 78th anniversary of the establishment of the Second Polish Republic with red flares and national flags, but several far-right groups used the occasion to protest against globalization, refugees, Islam, and the European Union.
The government has argued that the law helps businesses suffering from labor shortages and benefits workers who want the extra pay.
But the country's largest union says increasing wages for standard working hours and a more flexible retirement system would bring more benefits to workers.
Hungarian Trade Union Federation President Laszlo Kordas said on Saturday that he will present its demands to Prime Minister Viktor Orban. If the government refuses to negotiate, they will call a general strike on January 19.
Soros blamed
Government spokesman Istvan Hollik repeated the government's claim that Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros is funding protests against the labor law. The Hungarian regime often accuses Soros of devious anti-government plots.
Protesters also brought up other grievances with Orban's government, such as concerns about threats to the rule of law, the curtailment of academic and press freedom, and political corruption.
Viktor Orban's most controversial migration comments
Hungary's right-wing prime minister has been one of Europe's leading voices against migration into the EU. Unafraid of controversy, he has described migration as an "invasion" and migrants as a "poison."
Image: Reuters/B. Szabo
'Muslim invaders'
"We don't see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders," Orban said in a recent interview with German daily Bild newspaper. The 54-year-old prime minister of Hungary added: "We believe that a large number of Muslims inevitably leads to parallel societies, because Christian and Muslim society will never unite." Multiculturalism, he said, "is only an illusion."
Image: Reuters/F. Lenoir
'You wanted the migrants, we didn't'
When asked by Bild whether it was fair for Germany to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants while Hungary accepted none, Orban responded: "The difference is, you wanted the migrants, and we didn't." Migration, he said, threatens the "sovereignty and cultural identity" of Hungary.
Image: Reuters/L. Balogh
'Migration is poison'
It was not the first time the Hungarian leader has framed migration as a problem for his country. In 2016, he said that Hungary "does not need a single migrant for the economy to work, or the population to sustain itself, or for the country to have a future." He added: "for us migration is not a solution but a problem ... not medicine but a poison, we don’t need it and won’t swallow it.”
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP Photo/P. Gorondi
'Importing homophobia'
Orban has repeatedly criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her decision to allow over a million migrants into Germany in the summer of 2015. Orban told Bild in early 2016: "If you take masses of non-registered immigrants from the Middle East into your country, you are importing terrorism, crime, anti-Semitism, and homophobia."
Image: Reuters/L. Balogh
'All terrorists are basically migrants'
Orban has also repeatedly criticized the EU for trying to get member states to share refugees based on national quotas. In a 2015 interview with POLITICO, he suggested the bloc's leaders instead focus more on strengthening the EU's external border. In the same interview, he said: "Of course it’s not accepted, but the factual point is that all the terrorists are basically migrants."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Bozon
'Parallel societies'
Orban has found allies in other right-wing governments in eastern Europe such as Poland that also oppose the EU's refugee policies. In an interview with Spanish TV channel Intereconomia in 2015, Orban raised fears about integrating Muslim migrants in the EU when he said: "What sort of Europe do we want to have? Parallel societies? Muslim communities living together with the Christian community?"