Around 10,000 Hungarian police, fire-fighters, soldiers and customs officers protested on Saturday against the centre-right government's austerity measures at a union rally in Budapest Hungary's Fidesz government, which swept to power in 2010 with a two-thirds parliamentary majority, launched a package of fiscal reforms last month to keep the budget deficit in check.
The measures include cutting the eligibility period for unemployment benefits, tightening disability pension rules, and abolishing early retirement to cut spending and keep the deficit below the 3 percent of GDP ceiling of the European Union. The trade unions of police, the army, fire-fighters, customs offices and law enforcement joined forces in a demonstration in front of the parliament building, demanding that the government keep current pension rules in place.
They also want a wage rise to compensate for years of frozen wages and preserving the pensions of retired officers. "It's time for us to turn into rocks, because everything has been taken from us it's only our early retirement and honour that we still have and we won't let this be taken," Kornel Arok, head of the Fire-fighters' Independent Trade Union (HTFSZ) told a cheering and booing crowd. The protesters marched to parliament and some opened fire hydrants and used smoke bombs and sirens along the way.
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