Index – Domestic – Peace marches against colonization, debt slavery and hatred
We will not be a colony
First Peace Procession, January 21, 2012, Budapest
On January 21, 2012, three demonstrations took place at the same time in Budapest. The organizers Declaration for the Nation published their letter of invitation to the Peace Proceedings. The largest crowd was moved by a pro-government demonstration, the Peace Procession, with participants leaving Heroes ’Square and going to Parliament. There was an anti-government protest in Pál Schmitt on Dísz Square, while a handful of people scolded the monetary dictatorship at Sándor Palace.
At the head of the Peace Procession, a molino was carried with the following inscription: We will not be a colony. Among other things, the banner is represented by Prime Minister Imre Kerényi, Zsolt Bayer, publicist of Magyar Hírlap, Gábor Széles, large entrepreneur, owner of Magyar Hírlap, László Csizmadia, founder of the Civil Co-operation Forum (CÖF), András Bencsik, head of Magyar, Democrat It was taken by the editor-in-chief of a newspaper.
How many were at the Peace March? This caused a real number war. According to the Ministry of the Interior:
Nearly four hundred thousand people attended the peaceful, good-natured event. Since time immemorial, such a crowd in Hungary has not yet demonstrated in favor of the government and its politics. No police action was required.
Non-governmental calculations estimate the number of marchers at 100-150 thousand. One of the main organizers of the event, András Bencsik, about one million more people on the spot, three days later the Origin in a statement, however, he spoke of only 500,000 people. MSZP spokesman Zsolt Török, on the other hand, mentioned only “a few tens of thousands” of people.
According to contemporary Index reports, there has been no such demonstration in recent years, and the Magyar Hírlap also wrote about the biggest mass movement since the regime change, as the People’s freedom his report also noted that his staff had not seen such a mass since the regime change.
Reports of the event sometimes gave a completely opposite mood:
The Peace March entertains you with various songs. The repertoire is varied, with the songs Anthem, The Word, Under the Csitár Mountains and Áron Gábor’s Copper Cannon being sung alternately.
(News 24)
Obsession:
In addition to the Hymn, the Word, the Szekler Anthem and the National Song, folk songs, church songs and the Kossuth song were sung from time to time in the crowd marching with flags, candles and torches.
(Magyar Hírlap)
That day, the M1 Evening In his program entitled, two political scientists were asked about the Peace Procession. Tamás Fricz, a spokesman for the CÖF, believed that the move had proved that the majority was behind the government. As he said, there have been widespread attacks on Hungary recently, so it was necessary to show that the Hungarian cabinet is not an “autocratic, dictatorial, fascist” government. according to
the number of participants proved that if so many people stand up for the government, it is not a dictatorship.
Gábor Filippov, an analyst at the Progressive Institute, remarked that a dictatorship could move such masses, as was the case on May 1, 1957. He acknowledged that there were masses behind the government.
Equality for Hungarians
Second Peace Procession, March 15, 2012, Budapest
One month after the first Peace Process, Zsolt Bayer, András Bencsik and László Csizmadia announced the establishment of the Peace Process 2012 Association. On March 6, Bayer and Bencsik also officially announced the Second Peace March on March 15, 2012. It was said at the press conference that thousands of Polish protesters are expected, which will strengthen the international character. Bencsik expressed hope that
the “spirituality” of the Peace Procession exits the Carpathian Basin and becomes a European affair.
The Peace Procession gathered in Széchenyi Square. A crowd of pro-government protesters, led by equestrian hussars across the Chain Bridge, were swollen up by members of a celebratory march who had previously taken part in family programs in the castle. They were joined by groups of Polish protesters who ran into the Western Railway Station early in the morning. The Peace March, planned on a shorter route, marched to Kossuth Square.
At the central ceremony, József Szájer, an MEP from Fidesz, spoke for the first time, saying that in 1848 “they wanted to talk us down about going our own way, because the fight against superiority was hopeless”. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the keynote speaker at the ceremony, took over the motto of pro-government protesters (We will not be a colony), at the same time drawing a parallel between its 1848 and 2012 programs. Referring to international criticism, he stated:
we write our own constitution, we don’t need a donkey guide, and we don’t ask for the unsolicited help of a stranger who wants to control our foreign hand.
Criticizing the union, he demanded that the same standards be applied to Hungarians as to other countries. As he put it: “we will not be second-class European citizens”, as a millennial European nation, “we demand equality for Hungarians”.
The number war press did not lag behind either: the opposition mass of 100-200 thousand, while the MTI He reported 250,000 pro-government protesters.
Against debtor slavery
Third Peace Proclamation, October 23, 2012, Budapest
In 2012, the third Peace March was also held. On October 9, the Peace Procession Association, the Civil Co-operation Forum, and the Civil Cooperation Council announced another Peace Proclamation for the October 23 national holiday. This Peace Proclamation was proclaimed against debt bondage. The need for another civic action, ie the motivational element, Tamás Fricz said that
the left-wing majority of the European Union has still not given up on the goal of replacing the government.
Officially, despite the fact that more people were mobilized than all the information at other events on the holiday, the two speeches, Viktor Orbán and Gordon Bajnai, which started at the same time, received much more media attention.
There has once again been a lively debate about the number of participants, as it is MTI and the Ministry of the Interior reported 150,000 Peace March participants and 400,000 Kossuth Square attendees, while the number of opposition Milla protests was estimated at twenty thousand.
Outsourced conflict
Fourth Peace Proclamation, February 5, 2013, Gyula
Due to the MSZP demonstration announced on February 5, 2013 in Gyula, the venue of the Fidesz faction meeting, the organizers signaled another Peace Procession.
Participants in the pro-government demonstration arrived by bus from all over the country, and even from some Romanian settlements. A multitude of boards expressed their respect for Viktor Orbán: “We love you, Viktor”; The texts “We are with you, Viktor,” “Viktor is our man,” rose above the crowd of thousands. THE People’s freedom in contrast, he numbered a mass of one and a half thousand.
At the beginning of the Peace Procession, the “Bajnai-Gyurcsány: They Destroyed the Country Together!” a text appeared, and László Csizmadia spoke about wanting to demonstrate because they think that “when a government works, it is not appropriate to disturb”, and
“The event is not against anyone, they just want to help the work of the government.”
Márton Bene sociologist, political scientist a Peace procession and media discourse entitled in his study wrote about variable focus:
The Peace Procession became an immediately mobilizable “threat” to try to prevent any opposition street movement, or if there was no chance of that, to “stifle” the voice of the government’s “discursive acts” by organizing a counter-demonstration and demonstrating superiority.
Against the hate campaign of the left
Fifth Peace Proclamation, October 23, 2013, Budapest
On September 29, 2013, a member of the party alliance founded by Gordon Bajnai, the Solidarity Movement, held a birthday event in Budapest, where the former head of government also gave a speech.
At the event, the styrofoam statue depicting Viktor Orbán as a communist dictator was demolished, and then the participants marched to the House of Terror with their heads severed.
Two days later, the CÖF announced that another Peace Procession would be held on October 23 to protest the “left-wing hate campaign”.
According to Márton Bene, the diagnosis corresponds to the message of the previous Peace Processes, but also to the focus of the Peace Processes. According to the narrative, attacks on the government and with it on the nation no longer come primarily from outside, but from within the country. The Peace Procession, which has “become an institution and a phenomenon in Hungarian domestic politics”, has inexhaustible merits in the suppression of external attacks, but internal attacks have intensified. The attackers are the same, whether they attack from the outside or from the inside – the page. According to László Csizmadia, “the left first attacked our country from abroad, and now it has started a civil war”, and István Stefka said that
they wrote the Tavares report, they freed us from the problem of foreign currency lending, they owed the country, and overhead costs rose throughout their rule.
One is the country
Sixth Peace Proclamation, March 29, 2014, Budapest
One week before the parliamentary elections on April 6, 2014, the Peace Procession marched from Alkotmány Street via Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and Andrássy Streets to the Heroes’ Square, the Fidesz General Assembly. The first molino held by the line is One is the country caption has been added.
In his speech in front of the Art Gallery, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned his followers:
He who shares his vote breaks the unit, whoever breaks the unit gamble. […] One force, one camp, one flag! Only Fidesz!
The Ministry of the Interior estimates that 440-460 thousand people attended the Fidesz election general assembly, but according to a social research institute, “only” 150 thousand people listened to the campaign speeches.
Life and death are at stake
Seventh Peace Proclamation, March 15, 2018, Budapest
The seventh Peace Session in a row also preceded the parliamentary elections. Organizers have not hidden their concerns because they believe the danger is greater than it was in 2012, and “life and death are at stake” in the April election.
On March 15, 2018, the crowd departing from Bem Square in Kossuth Square listened to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In his speech, the Prime Minister emphasized the decisive stake of the parliamentary elections due in three weeks and the protection of the way of life of the Hungarian people:
We are gentle and serene people, but we are neither blind nor suckers. After the choice, of course, we will take satisfaction; moral, political, and legal satisfaction as well, but now we cannot waste either our strength or our time on it. We shake the attacks off ourselves like a dog in the water […], let us focus our efforts only on defending Hungary.
According to reports, there were hundreds of thousands at the rally. THE Hungarian Times according to his report, “the largest-ever ceremony and peace march of 15 March was held.”
(Cover image: Participants of the pro-government Peace March gather in Heroes’ Square on January 21, 2012. Photo: István Huszti / Index)