Hundreds of people demonstrated in central Budapest on January 23 against the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, which declined to investigate violence against opposition MPs at the headquarters of state television MTVA in December.

A group of opposition MPs demonstrating against the contested overtime rules last year entered MTVA headquarters and demanded that their petition is broadcast. The government-controlled media refused to even report on the huge protest on December 16 let alone have the demands be read out, which lead to a standoff between MPs and security.

After spending the night in the building, the former members of the green party LMP made a last-ditch effort to talk to the CEO of MTVA but their calls were rejected.

After a sit-in for several hours, Akos Hadházy and Bernadett Szel were thrown out by security staff, broadcast live on Facebook by the politicians.

Last week a longer video was leaked by a journalist from the state television that shows Hadhazy being dragged through the building by five or six guards for minutes. The shorter video version that emerged after the December protests made headlines in the international press.

MTVA also pressed charges against the opposition MPs on the grounds that they "interfered with the operation of the institution and caused scare". While the complaint filed by Hadhazy was rejected, the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office thought it was right to investigate MTVA's claims, which outraged many.

Speaking at Wednesday's protest, Hadhazy said that office's decision not to declare the actions of security guards unlawful had "decisively put Hungary on the path to dictatorship".

The state media and the chief prosecutor are the two main bastions of the Orban regime, the former Fidesz MP told the crowd. Hadhazy, a veterinarian, quit the party in 2013 after he leaked a voice recording on how tobacco shop concessions are handed to the family members of the ruling Fidesz and cronies. Since then he has become a prime target of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's propaganda media.

Hungary could only turn back from the path of sliding into a dictatorship if the opposition parties, trade unions, and civil groups show solidarity towards each other and unite, he said during the protest.

The few hundred supporters that showed up carried national and EU flags, and the flags of the various opposition parties could also be seen in the crowd. After the demonstration, around a hundred protesters blocked traffic in central Budapest for half an hour, but the protest ended without violence. 

Hungary's chief prosecutor Peter Polt has long been the target of criticism from civic groups and opposition parties for being biased in favour of Fidesz, which may not be that surprising knowing Polt's career. He joined Fidesz in 1993 but was forced to leave in 2000, after Orban appointed him to the position. 

During the first Orban government between 1998 and 2002, Polt stopped a number of investigations against leading Fidesz politicians. Polt was the obvious choice for the chief prosecutor post again after Fidesz' landslide 2010 election. In the last eight years, Polt has failed to launch investigations into the suspected corruption cases tied to people close to Fidesz, with the exception of a few procedures involving low-level officials.