Hungarian members of Parliament thrown out of public media headquarters by force

At Monday dawn, the MPs staying the night in the headquarters of the Hungarian public media broadcaster to have the demands read were thrown out by the security personnel.

This video shows how opposition MPs Ákos Hadházy and Bernadett Szél were thrown out of the state tv - Bernadett Szél says "They are beating representatives". She told the policeman they are terrorizing MPs in the building, and she said they didn't want to provoke, they didn't want a scandal, they merely wanted to read the 5-point petition of the protesters. She said they tried everything that could be done.

Read our article to find out why MPs spent the night in the public media HQ:

• Shortly before 8:00 AM, a group of security guards used force to remove MP Ákos Hadházy from the building, throwing him to the ground, then they threw MP Bernadett Szél out as well, while she was broadcasting live on Facebook. 

• In the meantime, public media went into a complete lockdown, even employees had a hard time getting in. The opposition MPs tried to request police assistance, but to no avail – the police are unwilling to enter the building, they did not intervene even when they violently ejected them from the complex.
• Police then refused to help the Members of Parliament who were still inside the building as MPs called them while they were being insulted and shoved on the floor in the building by the TV's security.
• The state media also reported the events to the police. They say that the MPs are interfering with the operation of the national media, but MPs insist that they remained peaceful and only want their petition to be aired and they are not disrupting the TV's operation.
• The security guards in the television building are legally obliged to follow orders from the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the secret services. This could mean that their actions since Sunday night were performed following orders from above.

(Cover photo: János Bődey / Index)