考研阅读精选：匈牙利抗议
Hungary steps outJan 3rd 2012, 15:45 by A.L.B. | BUDAPEST
http://images.koolearn.com/casupload/upload/fckeditorUpload/2012-01-04/image/22b35769b23a4c7fb20b3d5896886fec.jpg
THE symbolism was telling. Inside Budapest's Opera House, Hungary’sgreat and good were knocking back sparkling wine at a gala event tocelebrate the inauguration of the country’s new constitution, which cameinto effect on January 1st. Outside, on Andrássy Avenue, tens ofthousands of protestors demanded its withdrawal.
Brushing offthe demonstrations, President Pal Schmitt hailed Hungary’s new "basiclaw" as a brave new dawn. It may well be, but probably not the kind thatHungary’s rulers are hoping for. As the blog Contrarian Hungarianreports, protestors are increasingly taking control of the streets. TheAndrássy Avenue march was just the latest in a series of public actionsagainst the government's growing autocratic tendencies and itsrelentless centralisation of power.
Monday’s protests weresignificant as well as symbolic. This was the first time that oppositionparties—the Socialists, the Democratic Coalition and the green-liberalLMP—had joined forces with street activists. Peter Konya, leader of theHungarian Solidarity Movement, welcomed what he called “the long absentco-operation between civil groups and parties of the democraticopposition”.
Gabor Ivanyi, a Methodist pastor, told the crowdthat “There is no truth where laws are passed forcefully, withoutconsultations, where people live in fear and where people are notequal.” Mr Ivanyi is one of 13 former dissidents and liberal politiciansto have signed a letter calling for the European Union to intervene andprotect Hungarian democracy.
Government officials deny thatHungarian democracy is in danger. How, they ask, can this be so when anenormous crowd is free to demonstrate outside the very building wherethey are celebrating? In 2010 the right-wing Fidesz party won atwo-thirds parliamentary majority in a free and fair election, theyargue, and the government is simply fulfilling its mandate of radicalchange and renewal.
But as the government brushes offrequests from the EU, the IMF, the European Central Bank and the UnitedStates to reconsider key legislation that may be in breach of itsinternational treaty obligations, such arguments sound increasinglyunconvincing.
页:
[1]