( dpa ) - Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Friday joined thousands of anti-fascist protestors who gathered in Budapest in response to a simultaneous demonstration by right-wing groups.
Schroeder, who was in Hungary to speak at a conference, said that when he heard about the demonstration, he had to come.
"We are many, but we need more people to defend against the extreme right," Schroeder told the crowd of counter-demonstrators.
Both Schroeder and Gyurcsany received vigorous applause from the roughly 2,000 counter-demonstrators, who were separated from the smaller right-wing demonstration by metal barriers and lines of police.
Civil groups called the counter-protest after members of the extreme right said they would protest outside a ticket office in downtown Budapest where one of the staff allegedly refused to sell a young woman a ticket for a concert by a right-wing group.
Police accompanied several representatives of the right-wing protestors into the shop, where they bought tickets for the concert.