A rally by Hungary’s anti-Semitic Jobbik party has gathered hundreds of nationalists in downtown Budapest, despite government efforts to ban it due to its nature. The protest comes amid a recent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Hungary.
Nearly 1,000 people attended Saturday’s demonstration that was initially banned by police as it coincided with a meeting of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in Budapest. A Hungarian court overturned the ban Friday, saying that police failed to ban the protest within a 48-hour limit and also did not provide evidence for why they wanted to stop the protest.
The ruling was slammed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying that the court’s decision was “unacceptable.”
The event billed as a commemoration of “the victims of Bolshevism and Zionism” was orchestrated radical nationalist Jobbik party, currently the third-biggest party in the parliament.
Protesters, many in uniforms and carrying flags used in Hungary’s Nazi-regime, have been “praying” for the end of Zionism and calling for lawmakers or public servants holding dual Hungarian-Israeli citizenship to resign. MORE
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Rise of Hungary’s far-Right Jobbik party stirs disturbing echoes of the 1940s
As the youthful leader of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party arrived for an election rally, his followers gave him a welcome that had disturbing echoes of Europe in the 1940s.
Two ranks of Hungarian Guards, in paramilitary-style uniforms, snapped to attention as Gabor Vona marched past them. Party leaders saluted, and a red and white banner was raised – one that looked suspiciously similar to Hungary’s old fascist emblem.
The rally in a school hall in the normally sleepy town of Dunakeszi was packed with hundreds of supporters. They cheered as Mr Vona promised to rid Hungary of corruption and crack down on foreign interests.
He spoke about stopping Roma, the country’s biggest ethnic minority, from sponging off the state – forcing anyone claiming benefits to perform public service in return. He promised to “give back Hungary’s national pride and identity”. MORE
An induction ceremony of the far-right Jobbik party for members of the Magyar Garda Photo: AFP
Inside the far-Right stronghold where Hungarian Jews fear for the future
As the self-declared “capital” of the ultra-nationalist Jobbik Party, the town of Tiszavasvári prides itself on being a showcase for how the whole of Hungary might one day look.
Since winning control of Tiszavasvári’s local council three years ago on a pledge to fight “Gipsy crime”, the party has been on a vigorous clean-up campaign, banning prostitution, tidying the streets, and keeping a watchful eye on the shabby Roma districts at the edge of town. It even swore in its own Jobbik “security force” to work alongside the police, only for the uniformed militia, which drew comparisons with Hitler’s brown-shirts, to be banned by Hungary’s national government.
Yet Gipsies are not the only bogeyman that Jobbik has in its sights, as a sign on the well-trimmed green opposite the Communist-era mayoralty building suggests. MORE
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