View of the Danube in Budapest. File photoBUDAPEST, Aug 17Hungary's Green Party LMP held a protest in Budapest against the easing of deforestation restrictions, Index reported. Earlier in early August, the Hungarian authorities eased deforestation restrictions to the end March 2023 due to the energy crisis in Europe. «Green» organizations and opposition parties have criticized this initiative, fearing that it will negatively affect the environment. Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy called the campaign «slanderous» and said that «the extraction of firewood does not reduce the area of forests and does not worsen their natural state.» Its main organizers were the opposition «green» party LMP and the fund «10 million trees», and in total more than 40 NGOs, including Greenpeace, took part in the organization. «European Bolsonaro wants to cut down one hundred million trees!» András Ivan Boyar from the 10 million trees fund. It is noted that earlier the LMP organized a similar protest on Friday, after which changes were made to the government's order and nature protection zones were removed from the list of places where logging is allowed. However, the organizers of the protests, according to the publication, demanded «the complete repeal of the decision.» According to 24.hu, there were «several hundred» protesters on Wednesday.
