2006 protests in Hungary

2006 Hungarian protests
György Ekrem-Kemál speaking at a rally near the Parliament Building
Date	17 September – 4 November 2006 (1 month, 2 weeks and 4 days)
Location	Budapest and other cities, Hungary
Causes	Ferenc Gyurcsány's speech in Balatonőszöd in May 2006 Economic austerity measures
Goals	Resignation of the government Early parliamentary elections
Methods	Demonstrations Civil resistance Civil disobedience Online activism Riots Occupation of MTV Headquarters
Result	Government lost 2006 local elections Permanent political crisis until 2008 Hungarian fees abolishment referendum, 2008
Parties to the civil conflict
Political opposition Protesters of Kossuth tér Hungarian National Committee 2006 Revolutionary National Committee Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement Inconnu Art Group Fidesz–KDNP Government of Hungary Gyurcsány II Cabinet MSZP–SZDSZ Hungarian police REBISZ National Security Office
Lead figures
Viktor Orbán László Gonda László Toroczkai György Ekrem-Kemál György Budaházy Ferenc Gyurcsány József Petrétei Gábor Demszky László Bene Péter Gergényi
Number
Tens of thousands
Casualties
Death(s)	0
Injuries	Gönczöl Commission Report: 326 civilians 399 police officers
Arrested	472

Political opposition

Government of Hungary

The 2006 protests in Hungary were a series of anti-government protests triggered by the release of Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's private speech in which he confessed that his Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election, and had done nothing worth mentioning in the previous four years of governing. Most of the events took place in Budapest and other major cities between 17 September and 23 October. It was the first sustained protest in Hungary since 1989.

On September 17, 2006, an audio recording surfaced from a closed-door MSZP meeting which was held on May 26, 2006, in which Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány made a speech, notable for its obscene language, including the following excerpt (censored version):

There is not much choice. There is not, because we screwed up. Not a little, a lot. No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have. Evidently, we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years. It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true. You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing. If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?

Gyurcsány also said things which can be interpreted as admitting having called for clandestine media or private capital support.

The Prime Minister confirmed the authenticity of the recording and uploaded its transcript on his blog, but remarked that "in a closed meeting a person speaks differently than in front of the cameras".

Late on Sunday, September 17, people gathered at the Parliament building demanding the PM should resign. By midnight, the number of demonstrators reached 2,000. A few hundred people went to the State President's residency but later returned. This spontaneous demonstration was entirely peaceful.