(By way of background to that video and to the following report, you can read my earlier post concerning the Magyar Gárda, Jobbik's paramilitary wing, here. Harry's Place followed up with this post on Jobbik focusing on MEP Krizstina Morvai, who was featured in the video above. As the video mentioned, Morvai recently got in a bit of hot water for referring to Jews with obscenities in a public internet forum. Read here. In response, a former foreign minister wrote that Morvai's gross language was a step down from previous Hungarian fascist politicians, writing that "this tone and style astonish, unworthy of Hungarian traditions and a woman. All decent Hungarian people can only condemn this contribution. Such words were not written even by Csurka".)
The racist far-right has been taking advantage of the world financial crisis and the disarray of the liberal left and mainstream conservatives to make inroads among voters disenchanted with mainstream parties. They have been able to bring their extremist message into the mainstream. As reported in the video above, even to a greater degree than was the case with the BNP, Jobbik took a huge leap forward with their success in the European Parliamentary elections. They also scored a political victory when a Hungarian police union representing 10% of the nation's police announced that they were officially affiliated with Jobbik and published the following in their newsletter (read here and here and here):
"Given our current situation, anti-Semitism is not just our right, but it is the duty of every Hungarian homeland lover, and we must prepare for armed battle against the Jews."
...and...
"A crumbling country, torn apart by Hungarian-Gypsy civil war, could easily be claimed by the rich Jews . . . That is why we should expect a Hungarian-Gypsy civil war, fomented by Jews as they rub their hands together with pleasure."
The editor of that newsletter, and the person behind the union, is police Lt. Colonel Judit Szima (pictured below). In addition to running the racist police union, she ran for the European Parliament on the Jobbik list.
Not all the news has been good for Jobbik. Recently, a Hungarian appeals court ruled their militia, the Magyar Gárda, to be illegal. (Read here.) This ruling affirmed a lower court ruling which came after the Magyar Gárda conducted a series of violent anti-Roma rallies (including one outside an integrated public high school in Budapest and several in the integrated town of Tatarszetgyorgy) which culminated in the murder of a Roma man and his young son by fascist thugs. That was soon followed by the sudden enlistment of 400 new recruits. (Read here.) Subsequent to an appeals court affirming a lower court's ban on the Magyar Gárda, Gabor Szabo, one of Jobbik's leaders (pictured below, on the right), announced that the party would not comply with the court order and would, in fact, retain their militia. (Read here.) Jobbik organized a protest (described below) which took place 8 days ago. Another one occured yesterday.
The website Politics.hu (read here) has the following report on last week's Jobbik demonstration in central Budapest's Erszebet Square, which is adjacent to the historic Jewish ghetto (read here). Among those wearing Magyar Gárda uniforms at the demonstration were Hungary's former defense minister Lajos Fur, Jobbik chairman Gabor Vona and Jobbik MEPs (members of the European Parliament) Krisztina Morvai and Csanad Szegedi. The demonstration including other fascist groups such as the 64 Counties Youth Movement, which advocates Hungary's expanding to what it claims are its historic borders. Demonstrators were also demanding the release of Gyorgy Budahazy, who is affiliated with the 64 Counties Group. He is being tried on terrorism charges in connection with several bombings. (Read here and here.) The police broke up the demonstration when it turned violent, with demonstrators throwing rocks and bottles at police and calling them "dirty Jews". Gabor Vona was arrested (pictured in two photos below).
(Many more photos of the demonstration are available here.)
From Politics.hu:
According to news reports, Lorant Hegedus, a Calvinist pastor, not only visited the jailed Jobbik yobs, he also donned the paramilitary uniform of their Magyar Garda for this demonstation. (Read more about him below.)
It seems that Viktor Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party, apparently the big winners in Hungary's European Parliament elections having won 14 of the nation's 22 seats, are actually being hoisted on their own petard. According to reports, over one million of their voters didn't vote on election day, whereas Jobbik voters came out in force. Fidesz for years has capitalized on the same anti-Roma bigotry as overtly fascist parties do, and has offered support to the fascist party MIÉP. That may have seemed like a good move as MIÉP disappeared from the Hungarian Parliament and Fidesz gained seats. Now that Jobbik is presenting them with competition, and pushing them to support more overt violence, racism and challenges to the rule of law, that strategy isn't looking quite so clever. (Read the Economist's take on this here, and the Hungarian Spectrum's take here and here.)
From Politics.hu:
"Police clashed in downtown Erzsébet tér on Saturday afternoon with a few hundred demonstrators who gathered to protest at Thursday’s court ruling dissolving the Magyar Gárda paramilitary group.
One of the 216 detained was Gábor Vona, head of the Gárda and its affiliated radical right-wing party Jobbik. He was released early Sunday morning. Most of those detained were released Saturday evening.
Police had banned the demonstration, as well as similar planned protests in other parts of Budapest.
Police used teargas to disperse the gathering after some protesters threw beer bottles and other missiles at them, as several Magyar Gárda members and supporters attacked the police. Most of the demonstrators were taken away individually, rather then driven off en masse.
Police later launched criminal proceedings against four people and charged others with hooliganism and disobedience, said spokeswoman Éva Tafferner. One of those arrested had attacked police so crudely that the prosecutor’s office kept him in detention. Another of the detainees was on a police top ten wanted list.
Some 17 people were injured, while a HírTV staff member was hit on the head by a bottle and a correspondent of the Index website was kicked, Népszabadság reports. Calm returned to the square by 8 p.m.
After his release, Vona told reporters “we shall defend the national camp from being smashed and Hungarians who swore to be Gárda members from the terror of those in power. We shall not allow a Socialist Party hurtling towards collapse and the Free Democrats an annihilated horde who betrayed the nation to intimidate the Gárda which has broken no law. We expect Viktor Orbán and Fidesz to make a statement on the current situation.”
During the night MEP Krisztina Morvai and extreme right Calvinist pastor Lóránt Hegedûs Jr. visited Vona and Gárda members at the jail on Buda’s Gyorskocsi utca."
According to news reports, Lorant Hegedus, a Calvinist pastor, not only visited the jailed Jobbik yobs, he also donned the paramilitary uniform of their Magyar Garda for this demonstation. (Read more about him below.)
It seems that Viktor Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party, apparently the big winners in Hungary's European Parliament elections having won 14 of the nation's 22 seats, are actually being hoisted on their own petard. According to reports, over one million of their voters didn't vote on election day, whereas Jobbik voters came out in force. Fidesz for years has capitalized on the same anti-Roma bigotry as overtly fascist parties do, and has offered support to the fascist party MIÉP. That may have seemed like a good move as MIÉP disappeared from the Hungarian Parliament and Fidesz gained seats. Now that Jobbik is presenting them with competition, and pushing them to support more overt violence, racism and challenges to the rule of law, that strategy isn't looking quite so clever. (Read the Economist's take on this here, and the Hungarian Spectrum's take here and here.)
Yesterday, the Magyar Garda defied the courts to hold two more rallies in Budapest, one week after the first one. (Read here. See photo below.) According to the Budapest Times report:
For those who want to watch some very boring Jobbik propaganda, embedded below is a video they posted on YouTube featuring a brief but tedious interview with Gábor Vona, along with dull rock music and the usual Attention Deficit Disorder camera work and editing. As is typical of neo-fascists, Vona portrays his party as the last, best hope to preserve Hungarian national identity in particular, and Christianity in general, from the barbarian horde (i.e. Jews and Roma).
I briefly mentioned Lóránt Hegedüs Jr. above. Read more about him here and here and here. You can read about how he hosted David Irving's several visits to Hungary here. That post points to a connection between Fidesz and the group which hosted Irving's 2008 lecture at a Hungarian church in New York City.
"(Gábor) Vona told the crowd that Jobbik was 'preparing to govern' and its deputies, if in the next parliament, would be wearing Guard (i.e. Magyar Gárda) uniforms at its first session. He added that his party would continue its fight against the ban on the Guard. It is not the Guard, but 'Gypsy criminals, drug users, multi-national companies, Israeli acquisitions in the country and the government itself that the people find terrifying'."
For those who want to watch some very boring Jobbik propaganda, embedded below is a video they posted on YouTube featuring a brief but tedious interview with Gábor Vona, along with dull rock music and the usual Attention Deficit Disorder camera work and editing. As is typical of neo-fascists, Vona portrays his party as the last, best hope to preserve Hungarian national identity in particular, and Christianity in general, from the barbarian horde (i.e. Jews and Roma).
I briefly mentioned Lóránt Hegedüs Jr. above. Read more about him here and here and here. You can read about how he hosted David Irving's several visits to Hungary here. That post points to a connection between Fidesz and the group which hosted Irving's 2008 lecture at a Hungarian church in New York City.
Hegedüs is both a minister of the Hungarian National Synod of the Calvinist Church (or Hungarian Reformed Church), and a senior deputy of the far-right MIÉP party. In August 2001, while a member of Parliament, he published an infamous article (read pdf here at page 25) in which he wrote:
That call for expelling Hungary's Jews was condemned by many Hungarians, but not all did so right away. Karl Pfeiffer argues persuasively (here) that, the Hungarian Reformed Church, which had chosen to ignore Hegedus fascist and racist activism for years, was finally forced by the attention of foreign media to take some action. In response, they issued an order for their clergy to stay out of partisan politics. In connection with the article, Hegedus was indicted by federal prosecutors for incitement. He accepted a plea bargain in which he agreed to resign from his seat in Parliament and received an 18 month suspended sentence., however, this verdict was annulled in 2003. His article ended up eliciting wide support both from his own party and from many others on the right, such as the supposedly mainstream right-wing party Fidesz. In fact, Fidesz subsequently emerged as a not very secret "secret ally" of MIÉP, and even pushed to have MIÉP removed from the European Parliament's list of banned parties. (Read here.) Lorant Hegedus' article went on to be broadcast repeatedly by a radio station called Pannon Radio and supported in every detail on state-run Kossuth Radio's weekly Sunday talk show "Vasarnapi Ujsag" (Sunday News), which is associated with Fidesz.
"The Christian Hungarian state would have warded off the [ill effects] of the Compromise of 1867 had not an army of Galician vagabonds arrived who had been gnawing away at the country which, despite everything, again and again, had always been able to resurrect from its ruins the bones of its heroes. If their Zion of the Old Testament was lost due to their sins and rebellions against God, let the most promising height of the New Testament's way of life, the Hungarian Zion, be lost as well.... Since it is impossible to smoke out every Palestinian from the banks of the Jordan using Fascist methods that often imitate the Nazis themselves, they are returning to the banks of the Danube, now in the shape of internationalists, now in jingoistic form, now as cosmopolitans, in order to give the Hungarians another kick just because they feel like doing so...
"So hear, Hungarians, the message of the 1,000th year of the Christian Hungarian state, based on 1,000 ancient rights and legal continuity, the only one leading you to life: EXCLUDE THEM! BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T, THEY WILL DO IT TO YOU."
That call for expelling Hungary's Jews was condemned by many Hungarians, but not all did so right away. Karl Pfeiffer argues persuasively (here) that, the Hungarian Reformed Church, which had chosen to ignore Hegedus fascist and racist activism for years, was finally forced by the attention of foreign media to take some action. In response, they issued an order for their clergy to stay out of partisan politics. In connection with the article, Hegedus was indicted by federal prosecutors for incitement. He accepted a plea bargain in which he agreed to resign from his seat in Parliament and received an 18 month suspended sentence., however, this verdict was annulled in 2003. His article ended up eliciting wide support both from his own party and from many others on the right, such as the supposedly mainstream right-wing party Fidesz. In fact, Fidesz subsequently emerged as a not very secret "secret ally" of MIÉP, and even pushed to have MIÉP removed from the European Parliament's list of banned parties. (Read here.) Lorant Hegedus' article went on to be broadcast repeatedly by a radio station called Pannon Radio and supported in every detail on state-run Kossuth Radio's weekly Sunday talk show "Vasarnapi Ujsag" (Sunday News), which is associated with Fidesz.
Riding on this celebrity, and on the assistance of Fidesz, Hegedüs(unsuccessfully) headed the MIÉP list in the 2004 European Parliament elections.
This Hungarian Spectrum piece is full of valuable information on the connections between the supposedly mainstream Fidesz and the overtly fascist MIÉP, Jobbik and Magyar Garda.
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As an aside, the Hungarian Spectrum post about David Irving's New York lecture elicited a number of commenters who found the website via Irving's blog. Irving actually posts a comprehensive list of links to webpages which mention him, which is both kind of sad and kind of amusing. His loyal followers follow these links and leave the sort of comments you'd imagine that they'd leave.
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As an aside, the Hungarian Spectrum post about David Irving's New York lecture elicited a number of commenters who found the website via Irving's blog. Irving actually posts a comprehensive list of links to webpages which mention him, which is both kind of sad and kind of amusing. His loyal followers follow these links and leave the sort of comments you'd imagine that they'd leave.
The Hungarian Spectrum recieved a number of comments endorsing David Irving's Holocaust denial (from people such as internet hate literature monger and David Irving's NYC advance man Michael Santomauro,and Danish hate blogger Balder). Interestingly, the blog also recieved a comment supporting David Irving's claim that the post-war Hungarian Communist regime was led by Jews, and that 1956 Hungarian uprising was a fight of Christians against Jewish oppressors. They chose the wrong place to try that one.
The commenter wrote:
The commenter wrote:
It should also be noted that David Irving also wrote an excellent book on the 1956 Hungarian uprising, called 'Uprising - One Nation's Nightmare: Hungary 1956' which was described by Ferenc Kunszabo, editor, Hunnia magazine. Budapest, as 'the best work on the 1956 uprising in the English language'.
The Hungarian Spectrum's Eva S. Belogh, had this to say:
The only problem with this book review (is) that it appeared in a far-right magazine and that the book in question is useless. I who took part in that revolution can attest from personal experience that it was not a revolution against the Jews as Irving claims. It tells a lot about Kunszabo that he finds this the best book on the revolution. Trash it is.
Check out the comments here. Eva later posted this article to further debunk the specious claims by Irving and his fascist friends concerning Jewish culpability for communist crimes.
Remember that one way MIEP gained support was by attempting to rehabilitate the collaborationist wartime Prime Minister, László Bárdossy(read here). The fight against fascists who would distort history in the interest of a current agenda of hate continues.
10 comments:
Ooh, now where to begin?
Ok. Don’t believe everything that you read. Please accept that there could also be extremely powerful motives for the promotion of this picture of events. A lot of vested Hungarian interests have a lot to gain by it.
I don’t have enough time/room to make this case by critiquing all of your sources, so I’ll cherry pick the most glaring examples. First, the delightful Eva S. Balogh and her misleadingly titled “Hungarian Spectrum” blog, with all its pretentions to objectivity. Ms Balogh paints herself as a dispassionate former 56 revolutionary with a PhD from Yale. In fact, read the comments to her blog posts, and judge for yourself how she singularly evades certain types of questioning, and a different picture emerges. She is an unreconstructed Communist. The Hungarian government also sent out sleepers during the 56 exodus, and you should know that she couldn’t directly gain entry to the US, but had to sneak in through Canada. She is called “Red” Eva amongst Hungarian bloggers. I kid you not. It’s all very subtle, a misleading comment here, a historical distortion there. Example?
The Magyar Gárda is called Jobbik’s “paramilitary” wing. Why? Because all English language news sources use this word. But look the word up. Adjunct of military. The MG isn’t armed, hasn’t broken a single law for its two years of operation. It consists of fat men marching and wearing waistcoats and waving flags. Look. Look deep. That’s all it’s done. That’s all it’s ever done. Why is this essentially tubby, over-the-hill scout movement bigged up so absurdly? Doubt me? Look at the impression deliberately generated by the first minutes of the Channel 4 piece. You’re supposed to think of some kind of Chilean death squad, aren’t you? “This is not Germany in the 1930s...” But it’s not convincing is it? The out-of-time step and the bloke in the near row checking his watch. Yes there are nutty and disturbing fringes to the nationalist movement, but they don’t represent its mainstream. Obviously, I can’t convince you without resorting to hearsay upon hearsay, so let’s look at something we can both consult and confirm.
Namely, the more direct pieces of churnalism. Lump together the LA Times, The Budapest Times, and Politics.hu articles. You’d think the last two are based in Hungary wouldn’t you? Nope they’re all based in the US. So where do they get their info from? Go back to the original Politics.hu article you quoted and notice the words “by MTI” underneath the title of the piece. MTI is the Hungarian state wire service. You see, these sites don’t do actual reporting; they don’t even question: they just gain advertising revenue by regurgitating the state wire service and other website messages - verbatim. There’s also a lot of cross ownership here. In fact the person who runs Politics.hu also runs Politcal Pest and Xpatloop and The Budapest Times; from New York. (read Vándorlós comments to this politics.hu article to confirm)
And no, the state wire service cannot be trusted. So what’s going on here? Well, Hungary has been run by the same post-Communist kleptocracy for the past 20 years. They’ve bankrupted the nation while enriching themselves: it’s that straightforward. Furthermore they were smart enough to dress themselves in socio-liberal sheep’s clothing to make their activities immune from too prying external international media eyes.
cont'd...
Can you imagine how many red faces there were at the likes of Bloomberg and Reuters when Hungary shocked everyone by needing to go to the IMF? Fooled them right proper. The Channel 4 reporter would be shame faced too, if she’d let Dr Morvai carry on about the staggering human-rights abuses by the Hungarian state, but it was edited out wasn’t it? At - 01:47 - it’s really quite jarring. Because then people would legitimately ask, hey, why the hell didn’t you report all of this stuff when it was happening for the past decade.
There’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye. That’s all that I want you to understand.
By the by, those who would paint Jobbik as Neo-Nazis and Morvai as Eva Braun always omit to mention that in her human rights lawyer role (she’s also a law Professor at the country’s top Uni.) she supported gay rights cases, and the those gorgeously politically expedient allegations of anti-Semitism (which she thinks beneath her to deny) always omit to mention that she was married to and had two children by a Jew. Don’t they? Can you believe the impression that Ch4 story wanted to make you leave with, omitted that fact? Breathtaking! Isn’t it?
So what do you need to know about Jobbik that none of these sources will tell you? First, Jobbik is the chief threat (15%) to the party that represents this establishment (the MSZP at 17%). Second, Jobbik is the only party that is manifesto dedicated to prosecuting these people should it ever come to power.
Any compelling motives for distorting the facts now emerging?
I really admire your desire to be well-researched, but try and appreciate that the picture you have has been viewing and commenting on has been quite deliberately and painstakingly generated: for your benefit. The post-Communist elite wield the monopoly on all terrestrial TV stations and nearly all daily publications, and always have. They are perfectly aware at how much more distracted external observers will be if they portray the lie that contemporary events in Hungary have something to do with the 20 years from 1925-1945 rather than events in Hungary for the two decades between 1989-2009. Which seems more plausible? In fact if you think about it for a minute, your common sense compels you to consider the prevailing Western media view as absurd, doesn’t it?
And yet the former picture wins out, in which people are made to focus on the symptoms rather than the cause, and this is deliberately intended. Balance and crucial information that could be provided by alternate Hungarian sources (e.g. Magyar Hírlap, Hír TV, Echo TV – both satellite) are linguistically hamstrung. They simply do not have any English language reach, in which, again, the state has a monopoly.
If you think me paranoid, mull this over: the business of deliberately distorting the national information flow for foreign eyes: is the key fundamental of Hungarian political survival. It’s learned osmotically like how UK politicians learn Bagehot. It’s what these people do, and how they survived (by keeping Moscow sweet) the 40+ years of Communism.
Thank you for your time.
Thrasymachus:
The inroads made by fascists into the Hungarian mainstream should scare those who are concerned about democracy and human rights in Europe. In opposition to those who expose their wrongdoing, these fascists tend to make outrageous charges of communism, corruption and conspiracy against those who would dare even to quote them when the quotes shine a less than flattering light. That is precisely your technique.
You throw a lot of charges around in your comment. Did I step on your toes? Apparently you're displeased that I revealed, through direct quotes, the disgraceful nature of the group you support. You're upset that their records are becoming public outside of Hungary. In response, you question the "extremely powerful motives" behind my revealing this information. Exactly what motives do you infer for my post, other than a desire to reveal that bigots and fascists are gaining a degree of power in Hungary, and a desire to prevent an application of a veneer of legitimacy to their fascism? Do you believe that your friends are the victims of some sort of conspiracy? That, along with declarations of patriotism, are the last refuges of scoundrels of the far-right.
Moreover, your baseless slanders of Eva Balogh speak for themselves. She's a red because, you assert, some unnamed bloggers say so. You bizarrely also blame Ms. Balogh for the international media and, presumably, the Hungarian courts, referring to the Magyar Garda as a paramilitary. The simple fact is that everyone other than those with a vested interest in distorting the truth knows that is precisely what they are. You're convincing nobody with your claim that they're actually boy scouts -- total sweethearts! Ignore the pogroms against Roma, the arsons of Roma homes, the attacks on integrated schools, the murders of a Roma man and his child. Ignore the defenses of anti-Semitism, the calls to expel Jews, the blaming of Jews, Roma and "foreigners" for economic troubles. You really ask a lot of us. You'd have us believe complete your utter distortions and ignore the plain truth.
So -- back to Eva Balogh -- how is she to blame for the Magyar Garda being called paramilitary by the media? Try googling "Magyar Garda" and paramilitary. You must believe that your imaginary conspiracy of communist sleeper cells is pretty powerful based on the 6,700 hits that gets. Is the entire world except for Jobbik supporters part of this conspiracy? And is Eva Balogh somehow at the head of this army of sleeper cells? How absurd!
You have absolutely nothing of value to say in rebuttal to the very obvious bigotry of Jobbik and their supporters. How could you? They proudly proclaim their hatred of Jews and Roma and defend their bigotry as being in the national interest of Hungary. Your only defense is that Morvai, according to you, was married to a Jew. I have no idea of her ex-husband's background, but I do know for certain that it says nothing about her anti-Jewish and anti-Roma agenda and rhetoric.
In case anyone think we're talking about a small group of people making politically incorrect comments about minorities, let's set the record straight. Jobbik and their allies are violent fascists. They pose a real threat to innocent Roma and Jews in Hungary. They pose a threat to democratic institutions. They are obviously not above slandering those who oppose them, much as you have done in your comment. The only difference is that, when a mass movement makes the sort of baseless charges you make, they do so with an implicit threat to punish those who would expose them for what they are.
That stuff won't work here Thrasymachus. Go peddle that BS at a fascist rally.
You can lower your right arm now.
I have neither the time, nor the inclination, to rebutt you in prose. So as many points as I can be bothered to, I think. I really have never seen a length of text so wrong headed in every regard from opinion through to “fact.” You seem obsessed, with being perishingly naive, provided you can of course maintain your distorted picture; and feel you’ve done right by your own sanctimonious ideology.
Really, you are being unbelievably silly right from the start.
"The inroads made by fascists into the Hungarian mainstream should scare those who are concerned about democracy and human rights in Europe. In opposition to those who expose their wrongdoing, these fascists tend to make outrageous charges of communism, corruption and conspiracy against those who would dare even to quote them when the quotes shine a less than flattering light. That is precisely your technique."
This is all very good stuff. But it's rhetoric. And not one bit of it is based in fact. Look up "fascism" in your dictionary, again, this is not what is happening. Please tell me until you are blue in the face, that it is, and how many others agree with you. I will always simply have the OED on my side. That makes me right, and you wrong. And if you knew anything about Communism you'd know that the reflex response of any argument from the right is to call it fascist.
"Charges of communism"? The current regime are all formerly avowed communists. From the first to the last. The Hungarian Communist Party was called the MSZMP. They just removed the M for Munkás (worker). And are now the MSZP. Again. The ruling MSZP’S symbol is the carnation. The Hungarian for carnation is szeg-fű – nail grass. What do you use to strike a nail, with what hand tool do you cut grass with? This was the ever so subtle coded rebranding. You simply haven't the vaguest idea what you're talking about. And reading websites doesn't change that, matey.
"Outrageous charges of corruption and conspiracy" this is where you take leave of planet fact once and for all. And it really is such an insult to every hardworking Hungarian tax payer who's been diddled rotten for 20 years. Imagine a regime, in which the Finance Minister received an enormous consulting wage while in government, to advise multi-nationals in how to avoid his own tax regime. I kid you not. And that’s just the tip of a catastrophically enormous iceberg.
Regarding Ms Balogh. I assert what I do because I know what I am talking about. Repeating what other bloggers say is more your bag. My father was imprisoned and tortured by the Communist secret police in Budapest after 56, and knew the names of those whose credentials passed muster and whose did not. Anyway. I can only ask you to read, not her posts, but the fastidious way she avoids answering criticisms which rebut her case (when she can, like you, bear to tolerate such comment – “go peddle that BS at a fascist rally” – priceless, did that make you feel all big and special?); and prefers the ad hominem when cornered, as you do.
Regarding googleing the "Magyar Gárda" I don't care if a million sites say they are paramilitary. Look up what paramilitary means, in a dictionary. I suppose if enough people thought the earth was flat... The reason why so many journos use it is not because it is true, but because it is juicy; or that it fits their ideological point of view and the facts be damned. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
"You're upset that their records are becoming public outside of Hungary."
If anything pal, you've come about 2 years too late to the party.
Roma pogroms?? Huh? Again your regurgitated assumptions have no basis in fact. Every time one of these supposed acts of anti-Roma violence has resulted in an arrest the perpetrator has turned out to be a Roma. Every. Time. The cause for all the violence is not racism, but inter-Roma loan sharking. Again. You don't have a blithering clue. You have no primary evidentiary source material to draw on. You've just been given a set of dots and have dutifully joined them up like a good little boy: as you were intended to.
I’m sure you’re well intentioned, but to anyone with an actual inkling about the nation’s affairs you just come across as a bit of a tit who hasn’t got a clue about what they’re talking about. And you reveal this most tellingly here: “They [Jobbik] proudly proclaim their hatred of Jews and Roma and defend their bigotry as being in the national interest of Hungary.”
The sad fact is, that national survey after national survey have shown these views to be pervasive in Hungarian society. They’re no respecter of political persuasion, or education, class or wealth. They’re not confined to that one party, they’re everywhere and in all parties, and the majority of Hungarians. (no that isn’t an excuse, but it puts a slightly different spin on things doesn’t it?)
Try and understand, the internal attempts to curtail the nationalist movement have nothing to do with your socio-liberal allies currently in charge “fighting the good fight.” They are only socio-liberals because that’s the way the wind is currently blowing. (And are just as hatefully bigoted behind closed doors – that’s just a Magyar for you.) When ten years ago it blew from Washnigton, that’s what they nodded along to. And when it blew from Moscow 20 years ago, they did precisely the same. When they issue condemnations, they’re intended for your ears, not the ears of their countrymen. It’s all about power, and keeping your hand in the nation’s till.
"You have absolutely nothing of value to say in rebuttal to the very obvious bigotry of Jobbik and their supporters."
And you have absolutely nothing of value to add if all you are doing is repeating the allegations made in a hundred other places elsewhere, based on bogus evidence, without even a scintilla of accurate on-the-ground fact to call upon to support your own hysteria.
Read this .
Thrasymachus:
The facts speak for themselves. The real question isn't whether Jobbik is fascist, advocates violence and bigotry, and is destructive to democracy. The question is how anyone can argue the contrary with a straight face. They themselves don't claim to be non-violent. They don't claim to oppose bigotry. They don't claim to support democracy. How can you make such claims with a straight face?
Your arguments in support of Jobbik and the Magyar Garda are flagrant attempts to distort the record. I would expect no better from someone who believes as you do.
This blog must be a joke. It can't be serious. I didn't see so much lies in 1 article.
So tiny blog, so much lies.
Pathetic.
So if there are so many innacuracies in the article, why are you unable to cite one?
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