(NEW YORK TIMES) Budapest – As the governing party celebrated its achievements inside, tens of thousands of Hungarians rallied outside the nation’s 19th-century opera house on Monday in a rare opposition protest of what critics see as a campaign by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to undermine democracy and consolidate his power.
The protest — a day after the country’s new “majoritarian” Constitution took effect — was the first time that opposition groups, from political parties to civil organizations, joined forces to rally against the new Constitution, which was drawn up and ratified by Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party in defiance of criticism from Europe and the United States.
