HUNGARY 2006

 

Hungary experienced perhaps its most acute crisis since the 1989 change of regime, in fall 2006, and extremist activity reached a new level with the events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution in October. Participants in the various demonstrations of the nationalist right in Budapest shouted antisemitic and anti-Israel slogans.

 

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, but there are also communities in Miskolc and Debrecen, as well as in smaller cities.

The Federation of Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) is the main body of Hungarian Jewry. Among other activities, it supports the publication of a yearbook, Antisemitic Discourse in Hungary, published in Hungarian and English by the B’nai B’rith Budapest Lodge. 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 content of the community’s bi-weekly Uj Elet (New Life) reflects a religious revival among some segments of the Jewish population.

The Rabbinical Seminary, which has university status, is a well- known institution for Judaic studies, continuing its long tradition as one of the most established rabbinical seminaries in Europe. Several Jewish schools are functioning and have expanded their activities in the last years.

The Budapest Holocaust Memorial and Documentation Center conducts activities related to the Holocaust and its memory.

 

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Political Parties

The former center-right FIDESZ which, after its upset in the May 2002 elections, transformed itself into a conservative bloc in an attempt to topple the Socialist-led coalition, was unsuccessful in the April 2006 elections. The nationalist, xenophobic and antisemitic Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP), led by Istvan Csurka, has had no parliamentary representation since 2002. Efforts to challenge Csurka’s leadership have continued (see ASW 2005).

 

Extra-Parliamentary Groups

The number of neo-Nazis is small, but they are visible at 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 guises and adheres openly to the legacy of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross movement, led during the war by Ferenc Szalasi. Small groups such as Blood & Honour organize demonstrations on anniversaries linked to World War II and the legacy of Hungarian fascism. Skinheads, whose numbers remain stable, have been less active on the streets and in the dissemination of propaganda. Nevertheless, this violent sub-culture with its neo-Nazi symbols continues to be a threat to public order.

In February, Hungarian police confronted groups of local neo-Nazis, especially from Blood & Honour, who were celebrating the anniversary of the 1945 attempt of Hungarian and Nazi troops to break out of Soviet-besieged Budapest. Following such displays of neo-Nazi power, the authorities promise to clamp down. However, the marches have become an annual display of neo-Nazism and Holocaust denial; as such, they are criticized by liberals and leftists in the Hungarian media. The open endorsement of the neo-Nazi Group for a Hungarian Future (Magyar Jovo Csoport) of the legacy of the Arrow Cross and its leader Szalasi, serves to spotlight the re-emergence of similar groups, which attract dozens of sympathizers.

As in previous years, in October a small group of neo-Nazis tried to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the rise to power of the Nazi Arrow Cross party in Hungary in 1944. The event was overshadowed by the political crisis and demonstrations during that month (see below).

Extremist nationalist groups have intensified their use of the Internet in the past few years. Several websites, such as www.jobbik.net (a play on words, meaning ‘more to the right’ as well as ‘better’), disseminate xenophobic and antisemitic/anti-Israel views, often in vague terminology in order to avoid legal action. Such sites are monitored by www.antiszemitizmus.hu of the Jewish publication Szombat (see below).

 

ANTISEMITIC AND RACIST ACTIVITIES

Antisemitism in Hungary in 2006 was manifested mainly in far right publications and demonstrations. MIEP supporters continued their tradition of shouting antisemitic and anti-American slogans at their annual rally in Budapest in March, commemorating the 1848–49 revolution.

In October-November Hungary experienced perhaps its most acute crisis since the change of regime in 1989 and extremist activity reached a new level, with the events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. In recent years, Hungarian society, which is highly politicized, has been split between the liberals, the left (some of them reformed Communists), the center-right, and the more extreme right, over the significance of revolution’s legacy for the present. Thus, the battle for historical memory and its place today has become a primary topic in the sharp-tongued political discourse.. The opposition center-right FIDESZ openly called for the overthrow of the Socialist government, after it became public that Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said at an internal meeting of his party that they had “lied day and night” to the people as to the real economic and social situation, and in fact, were cheating the electorate. His words added fuel to the already heated atmosphere surrounding the extreme right ceremonies noted above in October. The FIDESZ-led opposition and other groups to the right called for open defiance of the government. The consequent three weeks of daily rallies culminated in late October when the police were accused of using force against violent demonstrators.

Participants in the various rallies of the nationalist right in Budapest marking the 1956 uprising shouted antisemitic and anti-Israel slogans, among them the accusation that Israel was guilty of war crimes. Security around Jewish sites and synagogues was reinforced, and there were rumors of panic among local Jews and community leaders. No attacks were actually reported, but this was the first time since 1989 that mobs of violent youths shouting antisemitic slogans were present on the streets. The center-right, which usually distances itself from extreme right-wing events and their messages, chose to maintain a low profile while calling for moderation and the democratic expression of freedom of speech. This stand demonstrated, perhaps, an attempt to benefit from the violent noisy upsurge of opposition to the Socialist-led government, which, nevertheless, survived both the parliamentary (in April) and extra-parliamentary attempts in the streets to remove it from power. The October-November events served the liberal press, such as the daily Nepszabadsag and the weekly Elet is Irodalom, which warned against the revival and presence of extremist and antisemitic forces endangering the new Hungarian democracy. (For a comprehensive analysis of the situation in Hungary, including its extremist manifestations, see G.M. Tamas, “Counter-revolution against a counter-revolution,” in www.eurozine.com , 18 Sept. 2007.)

Official Hungarian support for the US position in Iraq, though less enthusiastic than in the first years of the war, was criticized, among others, by Csurka, who continued to provide regular analyses in his party’s weekly and monthly Magyar Forum, in an attempt to prove complete Hungarian servitude to foreign interests. Csurka reiterated that in Hungary everything was decided according to the interests of the Washington–Tel Aviv global war axis.

Jewish infiltration of the Hungarian nation and their undermining of Hungarian national interests, a principal theme in nationalist propaganda, continued in Magyar Forum, the right-wing Magyar Demokrata and on several websites, such as www.jobbik.net. The monitoring site www.antiszemitizmus.hu) reported numerous antisemitic articles in the media and claimed that Csurka was no longer “the flagship of antisemitism” due the proliferation of antisemitic websites and groups.

Csurka's Magyar Forum, which, in its attacks on the Jewish-Israeli presence in Hungary, only rarely comes up with new ideas or interpretations, published (28 Dec.) an interview with Matyas Szuros, a former top Communist leader from the 1988−89 reformist camp. Among his overtly nationalist statements, Szuros alluded to so-called elements of Jewish power in the political structures of the country, including the Jewish origins of Peter Gabor, head of the infamous Stalinist secret police, the AVO, and his leading officers.

In addition, Magyar Forum frequently used the word “Judapest,” to describe alleged Jewish attempts to judaize Budapest. According to antiszemitizmus.hu, the term “Judapest” was lifted from a column in Szombat, which used it ironically in imitation of antisemitic publications.

The weekly Magyar Demokrata continued to carry reviews of Western anti-Zionist and anti-Israel publications, especially during the Second Lebanon War. It also took an active part in the debate that began in late 2006 over the use of the “Arpad stripes” (see 30 Nov. issue) The red and white striped banner of the ancient Hungarian mythological leader Arpad, was used in World War II by the Nazi Arrow Cross movement. The argument focused on whether the Arpad stripes are a fascist emblem identified with the Arrow Cross, or as some moderate rightists claim, are a national symbol. Magyar Demokrata, along with other right-wing forums, defended their use.

 

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA and

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

The 62nd anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary was marked similarly to the previous two years (see ASW 2004), with the various memorial events stressing the “Hungarian tragedy” (the crime carried out by the Hungarian people against their nation when they destroyed a community of fellow citizens). However, the right-wing media continued its attacks on “holo-propaganda.”

Annual seminars were held for Hungarian teachers both locally and at Yad Vashem, which updated them on the latest educational approaches and methods for dealing with the Holocaust, the Hungarian Jewish legacy, antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Textbooks on these issues are updated regularly and included in the curriculum.

These topics are also treated in Hungarian academic publications. The fourth volume of Jewish Studies (published by Central European University − CEU), edited by two well known scholars, Andras Kovacs, and Michael Miller, came out in 2005. The work includes studies on the history of the Holocaust, such as Laszlo Karsai’s “Could the Jews of Hungary Have Survived the Holocaust – New Answers to an Old Question,” and Andrei S. Markovits’ “‘Twin Brothers’: European Antisemitism and Anti-Americanism.”