HUNGARY 2002-3

 

Antisemitic activity was manifested mainly in slogans at right-wing demonstrations and in propaganda in extreme right publications such as Magyar Forum. During the May 2002 election campaign many Hungarian Socialist Party posters were defaced by slogans, such as “Israeli interests are behind the Socialists." A popular Sunday radio show on Hungarian state radio has become a major forum for airing nationalist and extremist views, as well as criticism of Jewish issues.  Antisemitic expressions were voiced during the ongoing debate over the introduction of hate speech legislation.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The 80,000 Jews living in Hungary, out of a total population of 10.55 million constitute the largest Jewish community in eastern Europe outside the borders of the former Soviet Union. The great majority live in Budapest, with smaller communities in Miskolc and Debrecen as well as in smaller cities.

The Federation of Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) is the main body of Hungarian Jewry. Several major organizations are active in Hungary, especially the Lauder Foundation, whose summer camps attract youth from across central and eastern Europe. The Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association publishes a monthly, Szombat (Saturday), and conducts a wide variety of cultural and educational activities. The quarterly Mult es Jovo (Past and Present) publishes original and translated essays on a variety of topics. The bi-weekly Uj Elet (New Life) is the official publication of the Jewish community, and its content reflects a religious revival among some segments of the Jewish population.

 

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Political Parties

The May 2002 election resulted in the replacement of the center-right coalition government by a center-left one consisting of the Hungarian Socialist Party (HSP) and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SzDSz). Since the election several new formations have emerged, such as the right-wing Jobbik (a play on words meaning “more to the right” as well as “better”), in the course of a regrouping of the Hungarian center-right and right. The center-right FIDESZ, which was the main governing party before the elections, has been transforming itself into a conservative bloc which will attempt to topple the Socialist-led coalition. The nationalist, xenophobic and antisemitic Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP), which had hoped to become a decisive factor in the survival of the center-right coalition, did not pass the electoral threshold, and hence lost its parliamentary representation (see ASW 2001/2).

Challenges to Csurka’s leadership have led to tensions within the MIEP, although there are no signs that the various factions that have appeared hold different attitudes toward Jews and Israel from those of Csurka. While intra-party strife may weaken the extremist camp, it may also intensify extremist rhetoric among those who seek to become known as the “true” representatives of the Hungarian populist right, which opposes Hungary's entry into the EU.

 

Extra-Parliamentary Groups

The number of neo-Nazis is small, but they are visible in public demonstrations on national days or anniversaries linked to World War II. The most notorious neo-Nazi group is the Hungarian Welfare Association, which has appeared under various names and in different forms and adheres openly to the legacy of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross movement, led during the war by Ferenc Szalasi. Various small groups, such as Blood & Honor, are active in organizing demonstrations on anniversaries linked to World War II and the legacy of Hungarian fascism.

Skinhead numbers have not increased in the last few years and their activities might even have diminished. Nevertheless, this violent sub-culture with its neo-Nazi symbols continues to be a threat to public order. In February 2002 and 2003, Hungarian police confronted groups of local neo-Nazis, especially from Blood & Honor, who were celebrating the anniversary of the 1945 attempt of Hungarian and Nazi troops to break out of Soviet-besieged Budapest. They were planning to march again in February 2004. Following these displays of neo-Nazi power, the authorities promised to clamp down on such demonstrations. However, the marches have become an annual display of neo-Nazism and Holocaust revisionism, which has been criticized by liberals and leftists in the Hungarian media. Thus, under the title “Nazi Traffic Violations,” Nepszabadsag (21 Feb. 2003; translated and reprinted in TOL Wire – the web publication Transitions Online) complained that in the absence of tougher hate speech laws, “exercising their human rights, neo-Hungaricists and neo-Arrow Cross supporters have begun to speak out and organize. The existing law offers no protection against manifestations of the extreme right.”

A principal defender of the skinheads and their sub-culture has been former MP Izabella B. Kiraly, president of the small Hungarian Interest Party, whose organ is Kottot Keve (Tied Sheaf). This insignificant group continued its pro-Iraq, anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda (see also ASW 2000/1).

 

ANTISEMITIC AND RACIST ACTIVITIES

The Hungarian media reported antisemitic slogans (such as “The train is leaving for Auschwitz”) and symbols at soccer matches and public events. Since the ADL’s appeal in June 2000 to the Hungarian prime minister to take legal measures against soccer fans who exhibited antisemitic and racist behavior, “soccer antisemitism” has continued. It is criticized by the left-wing media, and the Socialist led government is trying to deal with the phenomenon.

There were reports of cemetery desecrations at Balassagyarmat in November 2002 and in Szigetvar in March 2003. Skinheads attempted to break up a Chanukah celebration in central Budapest in December 2002.

MIEP demonstrators shouted antisemitic slogans and tore the US flag to shreds at their annual demonstrations in Budapest in March 2002 and 2003 commemorating the 1848–49 revolution. Further, during the anniversary demonstrations of both right and left marking the 1956 uprising, antisemitic and anti-Israel slogans were heard from the right. The center-right traditionally keeps its distance from the right-wing demonstration, which was led by Csurka.

 

Propaganda

The electoral struggle in 2002 was the bitterest in Hungary’s post-communist history. During the campaign many Hungarian Socialist Party electoral posters were defaced by slogans, such as “Israeli interests are behind the Socialists.” Following the formation of the new government in May 2002, Csurka claimed in the MIEP weekly mouthpiece Magyar Forum, that Hungary was now being ruled by the “soczionists” (szocionista, in Hungarian) (see ASW 2001/2).

The szocionista formula is a major weapon in MIEP propaganda, used since the beginning of the crisis in Iraq and the attack of the coalition forces. Magyar Forum carried dozens of articles, most of them written by ex-Israeli Jozsef Herring. In his memoirs (published 2002) Herring argues that Hungary's interests are subordinated to world domination by US-Israeli (Jewish) interests. Herring's articles are among the most anti-Israel not only in Hungary but in central Europe.

Hungary's support for the US position in Iraq, an issue widely debated in the country, was criticized by Csurka, who provided regular analyses in the weekly and monthly Magyar Forum, in an attempt to prove complete Hungarian servitude to foreign interests. He claimed that the Israel-Jews-US linkage, in which Israeli-Jewish interests in fact manipulated America’s own hegemonic desires, was the true “axis of evil.” Csurka seeks substantiation for his and his party’s views in foreign publications. The monthly Magyar Forum (8/2002) reprinted an article from the Swiss publication Zeit-Fragen, which alleged that “Austria is ruled from Brussels, Brussels from Washington, and Washington is ruled from Tel Aviv.” By extension, the war on terror and the ongoing war in Iraq are presented as clearly serving Israel's interests in that they allow it to continue its genocidal policies toward the Palestinians.

Such perceptions, shared by Hungarian populists and by the extreme right, emphasize the Jewish-Israeli aspect of globalization, a favorite theme of Csurka. Every issue of Magyar Forum contains articles describing the pauperization of Hungary, allegedly a consequence not only of Hungary joining the EU – a theme which lacks sufficient antisemitic elements – but of its subordination to US-Israeli global interests. This fits well with the old-new conspiracy theories of Jewish control of world – and specifically Hungarian – finances, a frequent theme in Csurka’s weekly column in Magyar Forum.

Csurka’s party, which until the 2002 elections, had representatives on the board of directors of the public broadcasting commission and the media, was active in “unmasking” the “socialist-liberal [read ‘Jewish’]” spirit in the media. Pannon Radio station identifies with the MIEP line, and “Sunday Journal,” a popular Sunday radio show on Hungarian state radio, has become a major forum for airing nationalist and extremist views, as well as criticism of Jewish issues. Csurka defended Pannon Radio, blaming attempts by “anti-national” forces to silence the “true” voices of the nation.

The weekly Magyar Demokrata is also a regular forum for the publication of antisemitic, anti-Israel and anti-Zionist articles. Articles dealing with the size and impact of Israeli-Jewish financial interests in Hungary are published in almost every issue. Such themes are combined with a negative approach toward the EU.

Lorant Hegedus, a Reformist Church minister and leading MIEP member, who heads the party list for the 2004 European Parliament elections, published an article in a Budapest district paper in 2002 in which he called for the elimination of the “Galician hordes” from Hungarian public life. In Hungary, “Galician hordes” is a euphemism for the thousands of Ostjuden, east European Jewish refugees from Galicia who flocked to Hungary in the late 19th century seeking a better life. Hegedus was given a suspended 18-month jail sentence for “inciting hatred against a community,” but in late 2003 the verdict was repealed. The “victory” of “free speech” was hailed by the Hungarian right, and he became an instant hero of the MIEP, as well as of the conservative right (from FIDESZ rightwards).

 

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST and the nazi era

As in previous years, much extremist activity was focused on condemnation of any type of memorial activity related to the Holocaust in which Hungarian participation was recalled, and on Jewish demands for compensation from Hungary. Frequent mention was made of the “communist holocaust” in which Jewish communist leaders were allegedly involved, a theme specially favored by the MIEP. The incorporation of activities in the school curriculum commemorating and educating about the Holocaust was vehemently rejected by extremists (see ASW 2000/1). Another troubling trend has been the the gradual expansion of a discourse minimizing and relativizing the Holocaust (see ASW 2001/2).

 

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

Relations between the Hungarian population and the authorities and the Roma minority remained problematic, despite government pledges to ease tensions by promoting cultural and educational activities and the election of four Roma members of parliament. The right-wing media continued to stress the anti-social and criminal record of the Roma, while human rights organizations sought to monitor and combat racism in Hungary.

Hungarian educators continued their participation in the now annual seminars at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in an endeavor to carry out the government’s pledge to include Holocaust studies in the school curriculum. The seminars indicate that Hungary is making progress in facing its past and teaching it to the new generation.