Smrt fašizmu, sloboda Mađarskoj!

Around 100,000 Hungarians rally for democracy as internet tax hits nerve

By Marton Dunai

BUDAPEST Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:28pm EDT
17 Comments


Ten of thousands of Hungarians march across the Elisabeth Bridge during a protest against new tax on Internet data transfers in centre of Budapest, October 28, 2014. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh

1 of 3. Ten of thousands of Hungarians march across the Elisabeth Bridge during a protest against new tax on Internet data transfers in centre of Budapest, October 28, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Laszlo Balogh
Related News

   Magyar Telekom flags austerity if Internet tax passes

Analysis & Opinion

   Hong Kong protests reach polite impasse
   Europe’s economic and political future will be determined in the next few days

Related Topics

   World »
   Tech »
   Media »

(Reuters) - About 100,000 Hungarians rallied on Tuesday night to protest at a planned tax on data traffic and the broader course of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government they saw as undermining democracy and relations with European Union peers.

It was by far the largest protest since his center-right government took power in 2010 and pursued moves to redefine many walks of life, drawing accusations of creeping authoritarianism, although it was re-elected by a landslide this year.

Orban's government has imposed special taxes on the banking, retail, energy and telecommunications sectors to keep the budget deficit in check, jeopardizing profits in some parts of the economy and unnerving international investors.

The Internet data levy idea was first floated in the 2015 tax code submitted to the Central European country's parliament last week, triggering objections from Internet service providers and users who felt it was anti-democratic.

The crowd, which was organized by a Facebook-based social network and appeared to draw mostly well-heeled professionals, marched through central Budapest demanding the repeal of the planned tax and the ouster of Orban.

Many protesters held up makeshift signs that read "ERROR!" and "How many times do you want to skin us?"

Zsolt Varady, an internet entrepreneur and founder of a now-defunct Hungarian social network iwiw.hu, told the crowd that the tax threatened to undermine Internet freedoms.

"Between 2006 and 2006 iwiw motivated many people to get an internet subscription," Varady said. "People were willing to pay for the service because they knew, saw and felt that their lives were becoming better... The Internet tax threatens the further growth of the Internet as well as freedom of information."

TAX REDUCED AFTER FIRST PROTEST

The government had planned to tax internet data transfers at a rate of 150 forints per gigabyte. After analysts calculated this would total more than the sector's annual revenue and an initial protest drew thousands on Sunday, Fidesz submitted a bill that capped the tax at 700 forints per month for individuals and 5,000 forints for companies.

That did not placate Tuesday's protesters.

"I am a student, my parents are not well off, neither am I, so I work hard," said Ildiko Pirk, a 22-year-old studying nursing. "I doubt the internet companies won't build this tax into their prices. And I have a computer, a smartphone, as does my mother and my four siblings... That adds up."

She said the internet was vital for her to get the books she needs for her studies but also to read unbiased news that is not under the control of Hungary's ruling political elite.

She and other protesters said the government's other moves also bothered them, such as a perceived mismanagement of the economy and a recent dispute with the United States over alleged corruption of Hungarian public officials.

The Orban government denied any anti-democratic agenda, saying it aimed only to get all economic sectors to share the tax burden and was tapping into a trend of telecommunications shifting away from already-taxed telephony and text messages.

The European Commission also criticized the proposed tax.

"It's part of a pattern... of actions which have limited freedoms or sought to take rents without achieving a wider economic or social interest," said Ryan Heath, spokesman for outgoing Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes.

Heath said the tax was economically misguided because it was based on data traffic now growing rapidly around the world.

(1 US dollar = 242.0100 Hungarian forint)

(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Marko M. Dabovic wrote:nadam se da mi se, drugovi, dopusta malo cinizma i malodusnosti: zanima me gde su ovi ljudi bili dok su orbanoidi donosili zakone protiv skitnica, izivljavali se na Romima i unistavali tragove antifasizma.

mokca wrote:Какав је Сорошев став о Орбану.

Marko M. Dabovic wrote:nadam se da mi se, drugovi, dopusta malo cinizma i malodusnosti: zanima me gde su ovi ljudi bili dok su orbanoidi donosili zakone protiv skitnica, izivljavali se na Romima i unistavali tragove antifasizma.

My name is Eva S. Balogh. As a twenty-year-old university student, I left Hungary in December 1956, after the failed Hungarian revolution. In late February, I arrived in Canada without knowing a word of English. After more or less learning the language I enrolled as a student at Carleton University, Ottawa, where I received my B.A. (hon.) in 1965, majoring in history. I continued my studies at Yale University, where first I received an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies, an interdisciplinary program, and later a Ph.D. in history. I taught East European history at Yale and published a number of studies on Hungarian foreign policy and party politics between the two world wars.

William Murderface wrote:

mokca wrote:Какав је Сорошев став о Орбану.

Obožava ga. Antisemitizam i velikomađarstvo, what's not to like.

Hungarian Prime Minister Orban scraps planned Internet tax

The Hungarian prime minister has announced that his government is scrapping a plan to introduce a tax on the use of the Internet. The move comes in the face of mass street demonstrations against the plan.
Viktor Orban Premierminister Ungarn

Speaking on Hungarian public radio on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his government was withdrawing its draft legislation, which would have imposed a levy on online data transfers. However, he didn't rule out introducing similar legislation at a later date.

"The Internet tax cannot be introduced in its current form," Orban said. "My problem is not that people oppose a tax. Here people question the rationale of the issue. Nothing can be introduced in these circumstances. This debate is derailed," he added.

The decision came after a number of mass street demonstrations in the capital, Budapest, against the planned tax, which Orban's critics claimed was an attempt by the conservative government to curtail political dissent.

The European Union had also criticized the planned tax.

The draft law would have imposed a surcharge on data transfers of 150 forints (0.49 euros, $0.62) per gigabyte, but it also would have capped the charge at 700 forints per month.

pfd/ksb (dpa, Reuters)

Orbán’s trick
November 07, 2014
Democracy

Article by Hunor Király, Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights (DemNet), Budapest

After mass protests against the internet tax in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke about the issue on national radio. International media interpreted his statements as a retreat; a victory for the protesters – and democracy. They were wrong, and their headlines worked in Orbán’s favour. A retreat after demonstrations is an easy story to tell. However, his following steps, after his smoke and mirrors act, will not be that easy to interpret, but the expected outcomes are even worse than the original law: overall regulation of internet and the dampening down of a vociferous protest movement. First, let’s review what happened over the last few weeks.

The tax and the protests

On October 26, four days after the internet tax was announced more than 10,000 protesters marched to the governing FIDESZ party’s headquarters, some of them throwing old computer parts at the building. The protest was a bottom-up initiative: people had had enough. Or at least some of them. The last five years were all about overnight-laws, largely in the form of regulations that were enacted without the required preparation or due consideration: neither experts nor stakeholders were consulted. Why now? Why the internet? Protesters are trying to find answers to these questions themselves. They argue on blogs, the Facebook page of the protest, and produce many self-reflective memes.

If I had to summarise all the jokes and memes, it would go something like this: ‘We know this tax is all about control, and we should be shouting for the freedom of information, and what not. And we just shout for our torrents. But hey, at least we are shouting.’

And yet, that Sunday night was a new hope for a many us both inside and outside the borders. Maybe there is a tipping point. As political opposition has disintegrated, the only way anything can be changed is through a bottom-up, self-organised approach: the people. But do people know what’s actually happening in a country where more than 90% percent of the media reach is in the hands of the government and their friends?

It’s probable that most Hungarians react as they did in the ’80s. They know the official news is a ‘different reality’, but they don’t know or care about other sources of information. They simply close their doors, as they did for 50 years, and take no notice until the problem comes knocking. Alternatively, they leave the country before it happens, before it affects their lives directly. The official version is 300, 000 expats, the unofficial estimate is over a million.

So a mass protest like this comes as a surprise.

A lot of the participants consider this hope fragile. ‘Yet we have to be here.’ they say. ‘There are so many ways to fail, but we have to do this. We have to try.’ The main risks they talk about are:
• The remains of the opposition, discredited politicians trying to hijack the protests and sour the mass. The organizers, and many bloggers and commentators called upon them and warned them not to come.
• Government-organized ultras, football hooligans mingling with the crowd, starting riots. On October 26, there were ultras in the crowd, and they tried to start vandalising. Luckily there were not many of them, as the protest was very spontaneous. Their organizers didn’t have time to get more people. Still, national television and FIDESZ’s Hír TV covered the protest as riots, a brutal attack on FIDESZ headquarters, showing ultras.

The government started to back down on the internet tax initiative, introducing a new capped version, while depicting the protesters as a ‘minor crowd’ of hooligans. In two days, another protest was organised.

On October 28, the protest continued. Reuters cited about 100,000 participants (probably inspired by the name of the Facebook-group 100,000 Against Internet Tax) while the pro-government media a more conservative 8-10,000. Another example of parallel realities in Hungary. The raw reality is about 15-20,000. On October 28 it became clear, this is not only about torrenting the latest episodes of Game of Thrones. EU flags, and the most popular slogans, ‘We want Europe’, ‘Russians get lost’, ‘Victator’ reveal this is about the values behind the protests.

And then Orbán speaks on the radio.

What did Orbán actually say?

Orbán spoke about the issue during an interview on a national radio morning show. International media interprets his words as a retreat. And that is a big mistake. There is a good wrap up of what he actually said in Éva S. Balogh’s article. I will highlight only the most important sentences, and misunderstandings.

• ‘The tax will be adopted, but not in it’s present form.’
• ‘People are baffled and influenced on this issue. We have to discuss issues relating to the internet,’ (not the tax, the internet!) ‘and the need, because the internet has to be regulated.’
• ‘We will start a National Consultation about internet in January.’

Now this is the primary misunderstanding. International media reported ‘a national consultation’. But this is incorrect; note the capitalisation. You imagined a consultation with experts and stakeholders, and the public? You are mistaken. It is important to understand what is meant by National Consultation.

An advanced populist tool

National Consultation is an advanced populist tool, introduced in 2010. It is used in cases when the government faces controversial political issues, but needs to appear as if it has vast public support. It comes in the form of an expensive direct mail campaign: a questionnaire containing very loaded questions sent to every Hungarian household. The questions and the options are formulated in a way that;

• they are direct propaganda material for FIDESZ supporters,
• they are literally impossible to answer if someone disagrees with the government’s suggestions.

There is no transparent analysis, details have never been published, but all five National Consultations were announced as a great victory: the vast majority of the population agrees with the government.

So what to expect?

An internet tax in one year. And heavy handed regulation of the internet ‘supported by a majority, according to the consultation’.

Publicist Péter Új wrote: ‘Orbán is not a good strategist but an excellent tactician.’ I agree. He managed to perplex protesters (should we continue or not?), and bluff western media. Good move.

The next protests are scheduled on November 17. With less protesters or more? Nobody knows.

The internet tax is only postponed: it most likely will be called something else

The first act of the drama is over, but I’m almost sure that more will follow since the participants in the recent massive demonstrations know Viktor Orbán only too well. Moreover, in his interview today on Magyar Rádió, he was quite blunt about his resolve to reintroduce the tax. The tax will be adopted “but not this way,” “not in this form.” That’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?
The problem, according to the prime minister, is that once again the people “misunderstood” the original proposal because there was never any talk about an “internet tax.” The proposed tax was simply an extension of the already existing “telecommunication tax.” Again the same old story: all controversial pieces of legislation are misunderstood by the domestic opposition. And naturally they are misconstrued by the antagonistic domestic and foreign media.
People who know Viktor Orbán are only too aware of his absolute intolerance of contrary opinions. We were reminded of this character trait only today when Tamás Mellár, the conservative economist who worked at Századvég for a year until he resigned in disgust, told the following story to a Népszabadság reporter. One day, when four or five economic experts gathered for a meeting with Orbán, he dared say to the prime minister: “Forgive me, but you are wrong in that.” A deathly silence followed, during which Mihály Varga, minister of national economy, “pulled” Mellár’s hand under the table, signaling to him that such a thing is simply not done.
So, you can imagine the scene when the normally servile reporter who conducts Orbán’s Friday morning radio interviews had the audacity to say that it doesn’t matter whether we call the disputed tax an “internet tax” or a “telecommunication tax”–it is only “playing with words.” A brief silence followed, and one could feel the stunned surprise and wrath of the prime minister. It was a frightening moment. But that was not the only awkward exchange in the conversation. The reporter mistakenly thought that Orbán had exhausted the topic of the internet aka telecommunication tax and wanted to switch over to foreign criticism of Hungarian policies, which he thought was somewhat connected to the upheaval over the internet tax. Orbán snapped at him again. First of all, these two things don’t have anything to do with one another, he claimed, and, second, he does not want to talk about this now. What he wants to bring up and what is very important is that the Hungarian government has an understanding with internet providers to make the whole country internet ready by 2020. This is what is important.
As for the criticisms, Orbán had a very simple answer. Naturally, the accusations of Hungarian wrongdoing have nothing to do with the facts. It is noticeable that criticisms multiply when the government stands up for the Hungarian people which in turn hurts foreign business interests. Right now, for example, after the parliament passed a piece of legislation that forces mostly foreign banks to lighten the burden on Forex borrowers, foreign governments are trying to put pressure on Budapest. Falling into the same category are the mostly foreign internet providers who don’t carry their fair share of the tax burden. They make enormous “extra profits” that they take out of the country. These extra profits disappear into thin air. He leveled this charge despite the fact that earlier in the interview he praised the same foreign internet providers for continuing to pour enormous sums of money into the development of broadband service.
Finally, Orbán announced a “national consultation” on the subject of the non-“internet tax.” Tamás Deutsch, a member of the European Parliament who hangs out on Twitter all day long entertaining people with his obscenities, will be in charge of this grand consultation. Although Deutsch thinks that the tax is “stupid,” he called the protesters “ragamuffins” and “stink bugs.” As for the so-called “national consultation,” we have witnessed a few of these in the past and we know that they are a farce. Viktor Orbán sends out millions of questionnaires to voters containing questions that beg for affirmative answers that justify the government’s position. For example, “internet dependency is a serious psychological illness” or “the internet is dangerous to young people because of pedophiles roaming the Net.”
As for the mysterious “extra profit,” I get annoyed every time I hear someone use the term. And unfortunately one hears it far too often. It stirs up old memories of a compulsory university course called “political economy.” In it one learned the Leninist definition of extra profit. According to Lenin, extra profit derives from the exploitation of workers in the colonies. These extra profits are then distributed at home to raise the living standard of the working class in order to keep them quiet. According to Marxist-Leninist theory, all profit is based on exploitation of the workers but the extra profit is achieved by taking exploitation beyond the normal level. The notion of extra profit in today’s public discourse makes not the slightest sense. Viktor Orbán is taking advantage of the Hungarian people’s discomfort with capitalism and what it entails–including competition and profit–and invoking concepts from the very same communism he wants to banish once and for all from the country. And, by the way, the profit these providers earn is apparently rather low.

So, will Viktor Orbán’s announcement this morning quiet the protesters? It looks as if Viktor Orbán’s interview, widely reported in the foreign press as announcing a withdrawal of the tax–a capitulation by the prime minister, did not impress Hungarians. Tonight József nádor tér was still full of demonstrators, and the slogans and posters highlighted various “sins” of the government. For example: “Viktor, you will find the extra profit in Felcsút.” Norwegian and EU flags were seen everywhere. The speakers announced that there is no need for “national consultation” because that already took place in the last  few days on the streets of Budapest and other Hungarian cities. The speakers argued that the government needs extra taxes because of the corrupt tax authorities.
In Szeged a very large crowd gathered tonight. Here the speakers covered several topics, including corruption and the lack of media freedom. The internet is the only “free island which the government hasn’t occupied yet.” It is, one speaker claimed, the most significant invention since the discovery of fire and the wheel and the symbol of Hungarians’ tie to Europe. “We cannot stop at the internet tax, let’s demolish the walls while they are not yet plastered and painted. … Long live freedom and the fatherland!”

We were reminded of this character trait only today when Tamás Mellár, the conservative economist who worked at Századvég for a year until he resigned in disgust, told the following story to a Népszabadság reporter. One day, when four or five economic experts gathered for a meeting with Orbán, he dared say to the prime minister: “Forgive me, but you are wrong in that.” A deathly silence followed, during which Mihály Varga, minister of national economy, “pulled” Mellár’s hand under the table, signaling to him that such a thing is simply not done.

Over 10,000 Hungarians in Anti-Corruption Protest
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Nov 17, 2014, 4:11 PM ET
By PABLO GORONDI Associated Press


Demonstrators gather on the Kossuth Square in front of the Hungarian Parliament building during an anti-goverment demonstration called Day of Public Outcry in Budapest, Hungary, Monday Nov. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/MTI, Lajos Soos)
The Associated Press


More than 10,000 people protested Monday in the Hungarian capital, demanding the ouster of the head of the tax authority and greater accountability from Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government.
The demonstration outside Parliament was spurred by anger over Orban's refusal to dismiss Ildiko Vida, who along with some of her colleagues has been denied entrance into the United States because of alleged ties to corruption. Vida has denied the allegations.
The event, dubbed "Public Outrage Day," was the fourth large anti-government rally held in Budapest in the past month. Smaller rallies were also held in 20 other Hungarian cities and in European capitals like London, Berlin and Stockholm.
Protest organizer Balazs Nemes blamed Hungary's whole political class for the country's problems, saying that "we are not here to bury a government but to bury a system."
After the protest was officially over and organizers left, several thousand people remained on the square and refused to go away despite repeated requests by police.
The crowd dismantled some metal barriers near parliament and faced off with several dozen police in riot gear while singing the national anthem and chanting against Orban. Some protesters were trying to push police lines further up the parliament's steps, but no violence was reported.
"The government is telling us one lie after another, politicians are getting richer and richer and in this democracy they're the only ones winning," said student Anna Der. "We have to make sure Orban hears our message."
The largest protest in recent years was on Oct. 28, when tens of thousands rallied after the government announced plans to introduce a tax on Internet use. Three days later, Orban shelved the plan.