Pro-Orban march draws 100,000 in Budapest

Close to 100,000 people rallied in Budapest Saturday in support of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is under fire from Brussels and opponents at home over controversial reforms. As organisers predicted, an estimated 100,000 turned up for the demonstration. It was organised by journalists close to Orban's ruling centre-right Fidesz party to show that the party could still rally the masses, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported. "We have seen that thanks to exaggerated and biassed reports, our country is being portrayed in an unjust and undignified way and that is harming our economy and our people," the organisers said in their call to protest. "We want nothing else than for the people of Europe and the United States to understand that we want to live in freedom, within the framework of democracy, by respecting others. "We democrats believe in our nation's independence, we believe in its future and its present." On January 2, an protest organised by the opposition and rights groups against a controversial new constitution attracted some 70,000 people. Following that, Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi claimed that the government could "get 10 times as many people out onto the street." Saturday's demonstrators came from all over Hungary as well as neighbouring countries with a strong ethnic Hungarian population, such as Romania and Slovakia. Many of those taking part carried Hungarian flags and banners with slogans saying, "We love our country, we love Viktor." The crowd was peaceful, playing drums and repeatedly singing the Hungarian anthem and revolutionary chants from the 1848-1849 rebellion against Austria. Some marchers brandished anti-EU placards. While some marchers, who were mostly aged 50 or more, were prepared to acknowledge the country had problems they insisted that Orban still had their support. The march broke up peacefully after reaching parliament. The European Commission has given Hungary has been given a month to change some of its controversial laws. Particular at issue are those related to the independence of the central bank, which have impeded talks over a 20-billion-euro (25-billion-dollars) credit from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Orban is to meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels on Tuesday: he has said that "a political agreement" would probably be reached then.