Thousands of people demonstrated in the Hungarian capital Budapest on Saturday, for the fifth day in a row, against a tax reform by the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The protests, the first since the Conservative leader’s re-election in April, began on Tuesday after parliament passed a tax reform that protesters say will increase taxes for hundreds of thousands of small traders.
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«Orban fuck you!“, sang in particular of the demonstrators among the thousands who pounded the pavement in the center of Budapest on Saturday. “It is insane what they (the government) have done. It’s not going to bring anything to the budget“, told AFP a protester, Ilona Pusztai, a 37-year-old lawyer. “Government continues to plan austerity measures (but) people can’t take it anymoresaid another, Zoltan Gemesi, a 68-year-old teacher. On Friday, Viktor Orban had defended the disputed reform, “good and necessary” according to him.
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The country, which is in discussions with Brussels on funds to support its economy, is suffering from high inflation and has seen its currency plunge. The government announced on Wednesday a “emergency stateto respond to the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, with a planned increase in coal production and calls on households to restrict their consumption. Among the measures envisaged, people who consume more energy than the average will now have to buy it at the market price, and no longer at a rate heavily subsidized by the State.