Hundreds of protesters blocked a downtown Budapest bridge on July 14 for the third day in a row to demonstrate a tax change backed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government.
The protesters who blocked Elisabeth Bridge over the Danube River oppose the proposal put forth by Orban's conservative government that would increase the tax rate for hundreds of thousands of small businesses.
Traffic was blocked for three hours on July 12, the first night of the protest, which represents one of the first major shows of public disconnect with the nationalist leader’s government since his reelection in April.
The turnout on the evening of July 14 was lower than the night before when several thousand people demonstrated, shouting, "We've had enough!" and "Dirty Fidesz!" and chanting anti-Orban slogans.
Peter Marki-Zay, the opposition candidate who ran against Orban in the April election, told protesters on July 14 that Orban's Fidesz party since the election had proved “that all its words were lies."
The Central European country already faces soaring inflation and a plunging local currency amid talks with Brussels over EU funding.
Inflation has hit double digits in recent months for the first time in 20 years despite a range of price caps set by Orban.
His government submitted the new amendments to the tax law to parliament on July 12 and used its supermajority to push it through on July 13. It proposes to tighten eligibility for a simplified tax regime that many small businesses opted into because of the eased administration and low tax rate.
Orban, who has been in power since 2010, has been accused by his Western partners of abuses in the EU and NATO member country and of chipping away at media freedom and other civil liberties.