Even as diggers turned over land for Europe's biggest electric battery plant, environmental protesters vowed to run the Chinese project out of town. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is keen to woo foreign manufacturers and promote the country as a global hub for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. But the groundswell of opposition outside Hungary's second biggest city of Debrecen is a rare grassroots challenge to the nationalist premier. "Our most basic need is clean water, clean air and healthy land," says protest co-organiser Julia Perge, a 56-year-old civil activist. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES