BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Several thousand Hungarians protested against Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government outside parliament on Wednesday in the second day of anti-government rallies after lawmakers fast-tracked legislation sharply raising taxes for small firms.
An hours-long blockade of a bridge in Budapest on Tuesday failed to derail the approval of a motion by nationalist Orban’s government to increase the tax rate for hundreds of thousands of small businesses.
Wednesday’s rally again gathered outside parliament before protesters chanting “We’ve had enough!” marched to a main square in central Budapest, blocking traffic.
Re-elected in April, Orban is facing his toughest challenge since taking power in a 2010 landslide, with inflation at a two-decade high, the forint at record lows and European Union funds in limbo amid a dispute over democratic standards.
On Wednesday his government ordered an export ban on fuels like gas and scrapped a years-long cap on utility prices for higher-usage households, rolling back one of the 59-year-old prime minister’s signature economic policies.
The measure will sharply increase electricity and gas prices for households using more energy than average consumption levels.
(Reporting by Krisztina Fenyo; Writing by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
