In Hungary, a tax tightening by Viktor Orbán's government has given the opposition the opportunity to send a sign of life for the first time since their devastating election defeat in April.
Demonstrations against the tax policy have been taking place in Budapest since the beginning of last week.
Stephen Lowenstein
Political correspondent based in Vienna.
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It is about restricting a flat tax for small businesses once introduced under Orbán.
According to the government, it was increasingly abused for bogus self-employment.
In an urgent procedure, which is possible thanks to the parliamentary two-thirds majority of Orbán's national conservative party Fidesz, the amendment was pushed through overnight.
On Saturday, according to the organizers, up to 6,000 people in the capital followed a call by Péter Márki-Zay for a protest under the motto "Hungary wake up!".
Márki-Zay was the top candidate of a united opposition list in the last parliamentary elections.
After their defeat – Fidesz surprisingly defended its two-thirds majority in parliament – most of its former supporters turned their backs on it.
He retired as mayor of the provincial town of Hódmezövásárhely, but founded a movement called "Hungary belongs to everyone".
In his speech, Márki-Zay criticized the austerity measures and called Orbán's campaign promises a lie.
He compared this with the so-called lying speech of the former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in 2006, which was followed by serious riots.
At the time, Gyurcsány had declared to his party friends: "We lied from morning to night." Today he leads the left-liberal opposition party DK and is one of the strongest critics of the former top candidate.