I have noticed that there are a few visiting Budapest in April. I don’t remember the dates. FYI, Sunday 12 April is election day. This is a hotly contested election and there might be some gatherings around town; or maybe not. We will have a better idea closer to the date. If I hear of anything or get a STEP notice I will post it here.
If you saw any international news in the last few days you might have seen that there was a anti-government protest in Budapest that attracted half a million demonstrators.
No, that was the news, but that did not happen. What did happen was that there were two political rallies on the same day, a national holiday, about a mile apart. Combined maybe they got half a million; probably more. It was not an anti-government rally and they were no protestors. It was political party supporters cheering on their political party and their candidates. Lots of speeches and singing and flag waving.
They both had legal permits for the rallies. They both began and ended when they were supposed to. They both picked up their trash. Nothing was vandalized and I haven’t heard of any arrests or any acts of violence. When the rallies ended, supporters of the two opposition parties boarded the same public transportation together. One of the rallies took pace about 250m from my front door. I walked through it a few times to see friends and do shopping.
If anything does go on, on election day, I will be very surprised if it isn’t more of the same.