Hungary Arrests 34 as Police, Anti-Orban Protesters Clash

(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian police arrested 34 people when protesters tried to storm the parliament building late on Tuesday after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s lawmakers passed a series of bills that strengthen his grip on power.

Five law enforcement officials were injured during scuffles as police used tear gas to repel demonstrators, Gergely Gulyas, the minister in charge of the prime minister’s office, told a briefing on Wednesday.

The clashes occurred after Orban’s lawmakers approved a measure putting the justice minister in charge of a new supreme court for public administration cases and a law which raised the amount of overtime employers could demand of workers. Opposition lawmakers tried to boycott the entire session with jeers and whistles to express their anger with the way the government imposed the employment rules.

The overtime issue also helped galvanize the street protests. Demonstrators are organizing another round of protests in the square before parliament for Thursday evening.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Andras Gergely, Andrea Dudik

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.