Demonstration in Budapest in support of the Roma after remarks by Viktor Orban

Text by: RFI Follow

Thousands of Hungarians demonstrated on Sunday February 23 to show their solidarity with the Roma after Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticized a Supreme Court ruling ordering the state to compensate around sixty young Roma victims of school segregation.

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Many Roma have come from the provinces to express their indignation in Budapest against remarks recently made by Viktor Orban. Originally, a judgment of the Supreme Court of Hungary, which ordered the state to pay 300,000 euros in damages to around sixty Roma families whose children had been victims of school segregation in a village in the north of country.

The Prime Minister refuses to allow this amount to be paid. " If I lived in this village, I would wonder how it is possible that members of an ethnic group who live with me in the same community receive such a sum of money without having earned it, while I kill myself in work all day. I don't know exactly what to do yet, but it can't stay that way, "he said, causing heated controversy .

In this Sunday's demonstration is Janos B., an electrician whose nephew has been the victim of segregation and must be compensated by the State. “ Justice is independent and Viktor Orban does not have to put his grain of salt in it! His role is to lead the country, that's all, ”he said indignantly at the microphone of our correspondent Florence La Bruyère .

Opposition deputies and many Budapesters joined the procession. " When the Prime Minister starts to rewrite the law live, it means that it is a bit the end of the rule of law, " said Sandor Szöke, filmmaker and human rights activist.

For Katalin Törley, a high school teacher, the government's campaign against migrants is running out of steam. So Viktor Orban found a new scapegoat. " He was forced to find a new enemy. And nothing is easier than playing with the prejudices, very present in Hungarian society, against the Roma. It's super dangerous. It can lead to civil war. "

" Down with the dictator who believes he is above the law!" “Proclaims a banner. On his sign, a protester wrote: " We cannot build the future on hatred ".

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• Hungary
• Viktor Orban

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