A funny thing happened in Europe, people in several countries felt the need to express their frustrations with the way governments are running things, some would say “into the ground”.  Demonstrations large and small, peaceful and not so peaceful went down in Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Ireland.

A crowd of about 400 peaceful protesters gathered outside the Sligo hotel where Taoiseach Enda Kenny was speaking to a Fine Gael party gathering.  But a smaller group attacked Kenny’s car as he left, jumping on it and banging on it with placards.  Garda arrested several people.

Demonstrators don’t believe the government’s insistence that water fees would be capped.  “It will be like the property tax – it will go up and up”, said Sligo residents Ursula McCaffrey, one of the loud but peaceful protesters who said that the water charges was the issue that finally inspired her to take part in her first demonstration.

Protesters pelted Czech President Milos Zeman with eggs, on the observance of the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution that toppled communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia.  Hundreds carried soccer-style red cards as a warning to Zeman, who they believe is too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin, running counter to the spirit of the Velvet Revolution.  Zeman even shares Putin’s view of the Ukraine conflict being a civil war of groups of Ukrainians rather than a rebellion stirred up and outfitted by Moscow.  That, they say, runs counter to the Velvet Revolution which finally shook off Moscow’s influence in Prague.

Being too close to Putin is also seen as a liability down on the beautiful blue Danube.  Tens of thousands of Hungarians marched through Budapest against Prime Minister Viktor Orban, accusing him of employing corrupt officials and being too close to Russia.  They want Orban to step down and take six alleged-corrupt officials with him, including the head of Hungary’s tax authority Ildiko Vida.  The US last month banned Ms. Vida and several other officials over their links to alleged corruption. 

But the endorsement of the US isn’t such a good thing elsewhere.  More than 20,000 people marched through Athens to the US Embassy, to commemorate the 1973 student uprising against Greece’s military government and America’s backing of that junta.  In the past few years, the annual protest has also targeted the harsh ongoing austerity measures instituted during the country's recession and enforced by the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Naturally, cops fired tear gas and stun grenades at some parts of the crowd, because it’s already paid for!  And peaceful protesters won’t violate their own human rights, someone’s got to do it.