Trouble is brewing in Hungary, as thousands of concerned citizens took to the streets in Budapest to protest a new proposed tax on internet use. Over 10,000 protesters marched through the capital city yesterday to demand the proposal be scrapped, as they believe it would at once increase their tax burden, and curtail their freedom of expression and access to information, according to a Reuters report.
Demonstrators in Budapest yesterday protested against a plan to introduce a tax on Internet use, staging the first mass rally since Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban won three elections this year. Tens of thousands of people turned up on the square in front of the Economy Ministry building in central Budapest, according to the news website Index. They urged the cabinet to scrap the plan and called another rally for Oct. 28 unless it does. Protesters broke windows at the ruling party’s headquarters and hoisted a European Union flag on the building after the demonstration officially ended, Index reported. “Viktor, we turned the clock back, not the century!” organizer Balazs Gulyas told the crowd, referring to the beginning of daylight savings time. “Unfortunately, our prime minister is digitally illiterate.”