Hungary The New Reality

Grosz faces the need for change

Days after Janos Kadar's replacement as Communist Party leader by Prime Minister Karoly Grosz, the mood in Budapest was still euphoric. "We won," exulted one party member last week. "It went beyond our expectations," said a high-ranking government figure. Agreed a Western diplomat: "The change is unprecedented in the Soviet bloc."

As if to test the limits of dissent in the post-Kadar era, some 3,500 environmental activists took to the capital's streets late last week to protest the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Danube River. In the face of bobbing placards and charged speeches, the police kept on the...

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