The Guardian view on protests against taxing the internet in Hungary: Europe needs to show its support
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Version 0 of 1. Hungarians came out on the streets of Budapest and other cities this week demonstrating against prime minister Viktor Orbán’s plans to tax internet use. Long accused of centralising power and eroding the country’s democratic institutions, Mr Orbán is now charged by his critics with plotting to restrict access to the internet, the only significant information space still largely uncontrolled by the government, by making it too expensive for many users. Mr Orbán may well believe that he can weather this outbreak of discontent, as he has done with earlier protests on issues ranging from the recruitment of the judiciary to the regulations governing tobacconists’ shops. After all, his dominance of the Hungarian political scene is all but complete. In April his Fidesz party won its second consecutive two-thirds majority in parliament, and most of the media have been bullied into subservience. Yet the internet issue could nevertheless be a turning point because the net is seen as the last platform for dissent, accurate reporting, and opposition to what Mr Orbán himself has described as his project to create an “illiberal state”. The mix of nationalism, autocracy, and anti-western ideology he says is necessary to equip Hungary for the rigours of global competition recalls that of his model and political ally, Vladimir Putin. But these protests show that Mr Orbán may be more vulnerable than meets the eye. The middle classes in Hungary have shown they can still mobilise even in a difficult political landscape. After the many restrictions imposed on the judiciary and civil society, the internet issue may appear to them to be the last straw. Europe should recognise that the protesters need support, difficult though it is to intervene in the internal affairs of a member state. More concrete action may be required. Europe has not gone as far as the United States, which in October slapped entry bans on six Hungarian government officials for alleged corruption. The protesters want the internet law to be withdrawn. Hungarian MPs are due to discuss it on 17 November. Time for Europe to show that it defends the values that people care for in their daily lives. |