BUDAPEST: About 100,000 Hungarians protested against planned tax on data traffic and the broader course of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government.
It was by far the largest protest since his center-right government took power in 2010 and pursued moves to redefine many walks of life, drawing accusations of creeping authoritarianism, although it was re-elected by a landslide this year.
Orban’s government has imposed special taxes on the banking, retail, energy and telecommunications sectors to keep the budget deficit in check, jeopardizing profits in some parts of the economy and unnerving international investors.
The Internet data levy idea was first floated in the 2015 tax code submitted to the Central European country’s parliament last week, triggering objections from Internet service providers and users who felt it was anti-democratic.
The crowd, which was organized by a Facebook-based social network and appeared to draw mostly well-heeled professionals, marched through central Budapest demanding the repeal of the planned tax and the ouster of Orban.
Many protesters held up makeshift signs that read “ERROR!” and “How many times do you want to skin us?”
The government had planned to tax internet data transfers at a rate of 150 forints per gigabyte. After analysts calculated this would total more than the sector’s annual revenue and an initial protest drew thousands on Sunday, Fidesz submitted a bill that capped the tax at 700 forints per month for individuals and 5,000 forints for companies.
That did not placate Tuesday’s protesters.
The Orban government denied any anti-democratic agenda, saying it aimed only to get all economic sectors to share the tax burden and was tapping into a trend of telecommunications shifting away from already-taxed telephony and text messages.
The European Commission also criticized the proposed tax.
