Hungarian Spectrum

The return of the gendarmerie?--written by S.K.

I want to thank my friend S.K. for writing this post on the historical role of the Hungarian gendarmerie.

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There is no reason whatsoever to be surprised over the fact that the Hungarian ultra-right is busy trying to resuscitate all the odious institutions of pre-war times, including the gendarmerie. For those who need to be introduced to, or just reminded of, this tough specialized police force, it was originally created to keep "order" in the countryside and soon enough acquired a reputation for ruthlessness and freewheeling violence. When the time came, it was also the gendarmerie who carried out the deportation of Jews into the arms of their executioners in Auschwitz and other destinations. Also, they were the ones who attempted a coup against Governor Miklós Horthy in July 1944, from which only a tank division of the military could dissuade them.

 

But back to our time! Enter Zsolt Lipusz. This unusual name belongs to a successful and respected high school teacher of history in the city of Nyíregyháza. He moonlights as the deputy chief of the local organization of Jobbik and is also the author of incredibly vicious articles, where else, but on www.kuruc.info.hu and of course Szent Korona Rádió (the Radio of the Sacred Crown). Lipusz also advocates the re-establishment of the gendarmerie because, as all ultra-rightists believe, only a super hard organization like that can restore "order" in a country riddled with "Gypsy crime." He nostalgically tells the story of how a couple of gendarmes scared a whole village of Gypsies into submission by just threatening them. None of that fancy-schmancy due process for those gendarmes! He even supplies  pictorial support for his assertion, and indeed the picture speaks for itself:

 

No wonder the word "gendarmes" was often hyphenated with "terror": "csendőr-terror." But Lipusz, in keeping with Jobbik's highest desires, calls the picture "heartwarming."

 

The gendarmerie was not only an instrument of terror in the villages. They were also key players in the Hungarian Holocaust. As an arm of the state, they collected all the worldly possessions of the dispossessed Jews before shepherding them into the ghettos. They made sure that the Jews got no food, water, or any other "comfort" before they were forced into the cattle cars.

  

  Gendarmes escort the deportees in Nagykőrös

 

Gendarmes lead the Jews to the railroad stations

 

 

 

They bring the Jews of Kiskunmajsa to the wagons

 

 

 And they deliver these children from Transylvania to Auschwitz

If all these "heroics" of the gendarmerie were not enough, one of the highlights of their activities was the occupation of Northern Serbia, particularly Novi Sad (Újvidék), in the winter of 1942. In order to establish a reign of terror that was unknown in those lands before, in only two days in April they murdered several thousand people, male and female, without respect to age or ethnicity. The number of victims was never firmly established; some estimates are as high as 12,000, but even the lowest is 3,000-4,000. Some victims were rounded up on the frozen river Danube, in which openings in the ice were created by grenades, and the people were shot and tossed into the water through these holes. This was also the work of the gendarmerie:

 

Novi Sad in 1942

 

And of course, they were not without a sense of humor. For amusement they humiliated the local rabbi, forcing him to wash their car:

 

 

The Jobbik and with them the entire right-wing of the Hungarian political class, with the support of the Catholic Church, is enthusiastically campaigning for the resurrection of the gendarmerie. They believe that this is the only way to restore order to the country. In the meantime, to accomplish that goal, they don't hesitate to break the law and they work feverishly to overturn the present regime at every opportunity they find, because, they claim, the present order is not order. To them only the gendarmerie's order is the true order.

 

So far this politics has garnered the approval of 15% of the Hungarian electorate and it is rising.

 

 

The Hungarian Guard demonstrates in Budapest

Undaunted by the court ruling, uniformed members of the Hungarian Guard demonstrated today in Budapest. By now the demonstrators have more or less been mopped up by the Budapest police. I tried all afternoon to piece together the various reports, but I'm still not sure how many demonstrators we are talking about. Reporters on the scene gave different numbers at different times, and it's hard to tell how large this demonstration actually was. The highest estimate I saw was eight hundred demonstrators, of whom three hundred were in the uniform of the Hungarian Guard. The rest were sympathizers. Another, presumably more precise number mentioned was the 127 people who were arrested and put into paddy wagons, including Gábor Vona, president of Jobbik.

It seems that both sides are learning. The guardists arrived in small groups at Erzsébet Square dressed only in white shirts and black pants. They carried the rest of their uniform, which they donned upon arrival. Several times the police asked the demonstrators to leave the square in the direction of the Astoria Hotel. Instead the guardists sat down on the grass hanging on to one another. The sympathizers chose a less peaceful way of protesting: they started throwing beer bottles at the policemen. A newspaperman working for Index, an online paper, was also attacked. So the guardists are learning from western models of civil disobedience but so are the police, who removed the guardists one by one.

An hour or so after the beginning of the demonstration the police started to press the crowd off the square, but it took another hour to get to the point that there were only about forty uniformed men left. The sympathizers were harder to deal with. Even at 7:00 p.m. they were ready to do battle with the police. There is a jazz club at Erzsébet Square and the demonstrators started removing tables and chairs to prepare some kind of barricade. Eventually the club simply closed. Meanwhile it was beastly hot and several people became ill. The encounter had interesting moments too: an older demonstrator jumped into the pool, clothes and all. See picture of the square. Gábor Vona was apparently removed from the scene around 7:30. Shortly after this the police moved in with full force, using nightsticks, gas spray, and tear gas.

According to one internet paper two people had heart attacks; medics were on the scene. By 8:00 p.m. the square was cleared. Only a few groups lingered and complained loudly on nearby streets. Others, numbering about 150, were pushed toward the Astoria and continued marching on Rákóczi Street toward the Eastern Station. I assume that they have dispersed since.

Lawyers working for the ombudsman's office were also on the scene and told reporters that "they will be investigating." They will ask for all documentation from the police and will form their opinion only after a study of these documents. I'm a bit puzzled about this investigation. After all, the demonstration was illegal and the Hungarian Guard is no longer a legitimate organization. What is there to investigate in this case? But this ombudsman's mind works in mysterious ways.

One thing is sure: never have the police acted so resolutely (and competently) and never have they arrested so many people. Obviously the court's verdict strengthened their resolve and gave them courage. What will happen after this? If I have to predict: the usual mess. But at least this time the law seems to be on the side of the police. For some fantastic photographs, here is a link. No wonder that there were medical emergencies. Some of the warriors are old and in terrible physical shape. There is a priceless picture of one woman waving the red and white striped flag and a fellow with a very big belly. Click on "Képgaléria"  under the first picture in the article http://www.fn.hu/belfold/20090704/vege_belvarosi_balhenak/

Law enforcement in Hungary

A local paper (Somogyi Hírlap) asked its readers which organization they trust more, the Hungarian police force or the Hungarian Guard. Eighty percent opted for the latter. Of course, this is not a representative sample but it says a lot about the radicalization of Hungarians and the lack of respect accorded the Hungarian police. I might add that this sudden concern over the lack of security and the alleged growth of criminal activities is somewhat surprising because in reality crime  hasn't increased of late. On the contrary, in the last few years it has substantially decreased in all categories. However, the public thinks otherwise. This has been especially true in the last two years.

Perhaps it started with the brutal murder of a school teacher in Olaszliszka who inadvertently hit a child who ran in front of his car. Nothing happened to the child but the extended Roma family attacked him and in front of his two daughters beat him to death. (See "Verdict in Olaszliszka [Hungary] murder," May 30, 2009) And the public's perception of a "crime wave" was further reinforced in February 2009 when a well known handball player, Marian Cozma, was stabbed to death, also by Gypsies. These two terrible incidents further inflamed the intense anti-Gypsy sentiment among the population. According to several opinion polls about 80% of Hungarians have very negative opinions of Gypsies whose situation has become close to hopeless in the last twenty years, ever since the mammoth Hungarian state factories where they worked mostly as unskilled workers closed their doors. They live in villages where work is practically nonexistent and in any case they are widely discriminated against in the job market. Large families live on state assistance and some of them help themselves to the possessions of their neighbors. These are petty crimes that the police refuse to investigate. According to the rules and regulations, if the value of the loss is less than 20,000 Ft (€73 or $100) the police simply don't bother. However, some old folks in a God-forsaken village somewhere in northeast Hungary don't consider the disappearance of a few chickens or a piglet a small thing at all. They naively think that if the mayor of the village calls in the Hungarian Guard and the Guard frightens the living daylights out of the Gypsies, then the thieves will be afraid to repeat their evil deeds. Problem solved. Well, we know it is not that simple.

There used to be all sorts of cruel police jokes in Kádár's Hungary about the inordinate stupidity of Hungarian policemen. Today the requirements for admission to the force are much higher. I wrote earlier about the woes of the Hungarian police force and gave a detailed description of the educational background necessary to become a police officer. ("The Hungarian police force," March 1, 2009) In fact, the training program for candidates is unusually long. Two solid years. I checked a few police academies in this country and found that they demand only 15-20 weeks of training. Whether Hungarians need two years to become a police officer I don't know. Most likely not.

There are also lots of complaints that there are not enough police, but as far as I know there are over 42,000 employees of the Hungarian police force, which is considered to be more than adequate. However, looking at the Magyar Statisztikai Zsebkönyv (Hungarian Statistical Handbook), I ascertained that about 10,000 of these people are not policemen but civil servants who sit at their desks all day long. Another problem is that according to rules and regulations all police, even traffic cops, must serve in pairs. This is not the case in most other countries. Thus the number of cops on the beat might actually be quite low. However, there is something called "polgárőrség" (citizen guards) who are supposed to assist the police in patroling public places. I think in the United Kingdom they are called "police civilians." These people are volunteers who receive no remuneration. Their number is high: 88,000. The police chief is now considering the option of allowing a citizen guard to replace one of the two policemen patroling the streets or checking traffic violations. There are some people who would further raise the number of citizen guards and make them salaried employees. The police leadership is also thinking of enticing retired policemen to reenter the force. A Hungarian police officer can retire at a relatively early age with a handsome pension. Most of them also work in their "retirement" at well paying jobs, and therefore my feeling is that it will be difficult to convince them to return to full time work for the Hungarian police where salaries are low.

In my earlier blog I mentioned an article written by two law professors specializing in law enforcement who argued that the centralized Hungarian police system is an impediment to good police work on the local level. A policeman should be a native of the town or village where he serves. Moreover, local authorities know the law enforcement needs of the locality better than someone sitting in Budapest. So the Hungarian police force should be completely reorganized. I can't quite see the current top brass, the Országos Rendőrfőkapitányság (National Police Chief Captaincy), giving up all its powers and passing them on to local--municipal and county--authorities. However, perhaps a combination of the two systems might work. Apparently the legal foundation for establishing such a system is already in place. In the 1990 law establishing local governments there is half a sentence about "keeping order in public places" as one of the duties of local governments. That provision, according to some people, including the police chief, might enable local authorities to establish their own police force with some central financial assistance. The name would be "települési őrség," meaning simply municipal police, but Fidesz immediately labelled them "Red Guards" which is, of course, total nonsense. Especially since most of the localities are in Fidesz hands or in the hands of the so-called "independents" about whom I just wrote.

How do Hungarian policemen strike visitors? Their uniform is a bit casual but this seems to be the trend everywhere. I read somewhere that even in the United Kingdom a couple of years ago helmets were exchanged for baseball caps in certain localities. So it is not the baseball cap that is the problem. The uniform doesn't look half bad on the attached picture. On the streets, however, they look shabby. I don't know how many uniforms they get and who is in charge of their laundering but their clothes look crumpled. Moreover, the cops don't set a good example by smoking on duty and throwing cigarette  butts on the pavement. Perhaps policemen shouldn't look like the military, with perfectly pressed uniforms and shined shoes or boots. But somehow they don't look like professional crime fighters; their uniform looks more like that of an unkempt FedEx driver.

By the way, when I was looking at the web site of Kiskunlacháza the other day, I discovered that in that town of 9,000 there was no resident policeman prior to the murder of the fourteen-year-old local girl. The enterprising mayor immediately demanded and received a police force--eight policemen and a police car as well. Whether crime statistics warrant such a large force I have no idea. (As a point of comparison I live in a town of 4,500 last year voted "the best little town in Connecticut"; we have no local police, only one resident state trooper.)

And one more related topic. József Bencze, the national police chief, has an entirely different interpretation of yesterday's verdict in the Hungarian Guard case from István Lövétei who spoke yesterday on József Orosz's program. Bencze, who has a law degree, in consultation with constitutional lawyers came to the conclusion that the police have the right to disperse members of the dissolved Hungarian Guard if they appear in uniform. Tomorrow might be the first test case. Earlier a group of extremists applied for a permit to demonstrate on July 4 in front of parliament to protest the arrest of György Budaházy, the alleged mastermind behind the Arrows of Hungarians. The police refused to grant permission, claiming that such a demonstration would impede the work of the legislators. However, that didn't deter the organizers, who are still planning to demonstrate. The members of the Hungarian Guard, fuming over yesterday's verdict, are planning to join them. In fact, they are organizing the protest on their website. The Hungarian police also made clear on their website that they will disperse any such demonstration; see http://www.police.hu/tlz .

The police chief sounded very determined. One had the feeling that yesterday's verdict emboldened the Hungarian police who in the last few years had become completely demoralized. What will happen tomorrow? Hard to predict. I didn't particularly like the comments accompanying the article that appeared in Népszabadság about tomorrow's "non-demonstration." They were belligerent and ugly. They predicted civil war. However, I'm an optimistic sort. Most likely that the police will defend the square in front of parliament with a very large force and perhaps some of the extremists will think twice before going against them. And if not, and if they are injured in any way, they will soon have their spokeswoman in Brussels in the person of Krisztina Morvai.

The Hungarian Guard no more?

On paper that seems to be the case. The Hungarian Guard lost again on appeal. It was last December that the presiding judge in a lower court found the Hungarian Guard guilty of violating the rights of an ethnic group. The lawyer representing the Guard appealed. Today the Hungarian Guard both as a "cultural association" and as a "movement" was found guilty as charged. Anyone interested in the distinction between "association" and "movement" cooked up by the defense lawyer should read my blog "The Hungarian Guard: End game?" (December 17, 2008).

Fidesz issued a terse response that can be found on the party's web site: "Fidesz is a party of law and order. Fidesz, being a political organization, never expressed any opinion on court cases in the past and is not planning to do so in the future." MSZP was not so shy. István Nyakó, spokesman of the party, expressed his hope that "from today on it is clear to everyone that the Hungarian Guard is not only inhumane and unacceptable but also professes an illegal ideology and practice." He added that this is just the beginning, but at least the court of appeal made clear where the line is between free speech and fascist ideology. He expressed his hope that from here on any hidden or open cooperation with extreme groups will not be tolerated. The different Roma organizations were delighted, and one of their leaders said "an era came to a close" with this court decision.

I wouldn't be so optimistic. The Hungarian Guard has no intention of obeying the law, it seems. As soon as the news of the court decision reached some of the leaders of the Guard, they immediately swung into action. Tonight, for example, the Guard is recruiting in the city of Gyöngyös (Heves County). Gábor Vona gave a press conference at which he outlined Jobbik's determination to continue the fight. They will turn to the Supreme Court asking it to review the case. If they refuse to do so, Jobbik is going straight to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Good luck there! Vona, perhaps himself not believing in Jobbik's success at the Hungarian Supreme Court or the court in Strasbourg, warned that "this injunction will have grave societal consequences because it goes against the sense of justice of the Hungarian people." Moreover, he added, to forbid the activities of the "association" will not achieve its expected result. Because, after all, this verdict doesn't forbid the wearing of identical outfits or appearing even in large numbers in towns and villages. He added that Jobbik for the time being is not considering establishing a new organization under a different name. Vona, by the way, was in the courtroom and even before the session began he was actively promoting the Hungarian Guard. See the attached picture taken in front of the courthouse. Members of the Hungarian Guard couldn't enter the building but one older fellow got in anyway. He arrived in civilian clothes but in a bag he carried his uniform into which he quickly changed. The papers didn't elaborate what happened to him. Was he removed or not? My feeling is that he wasn't; otherwise the journalists, always eager to report something sensational, would have said something about it.

Quite independently of Jobbik's future strategy I foresee a huge legal debate ahead of us. Legal experts will argue endlessly about what Hungarian law enforcement will or will not be able to do if and when the Hungarian Guard marches out again in uniform and in military formation. I already heard one opinion on József Orosz's radio program, Kontra. The constitutional expert, István Lövétei, pretty well said that in Hungarian jurisprudence such a verdict means nothing because law enforcement simply doesn't have the "instruments" to implement it. There is absolutely nothing in the law governing freedom of assembly that would forbid the wearing of identical clothes, boots, striped kerchiefs. And there are no exclusionary provisions that would prevent assembly by an illegal group. In brief, the verdict is very nice but it has no teeth. In England, for example--he continued--the situation would be different. There a court decision automatically allows law enforcement to suppress an organization found illegal by the court. Not so in Hungary.

I'm no lawyer, but I know that Lövétei's interpretations are often very conservative, and I'm almost certain that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow there will be other jurists who will not share his opinion. Even József Orosz (also a liberal arts type like myself) inquired how the law can treat a "movement" and its outward signs separately. For instance, the boys belonging to the Boy Scout movement wear Boy Scout uniforms. The uniform is a distinguishing sign of the movement. Lövétei was not impressed.

When Tibor Draskovics, the minister of justice and law enforcement, was asked about his reaction to the verdict he didn't address any of the practical problems concerning any future illegal activities (which according to Lövétei wouldn't even be illegal). He was elated. The message for him was clear--  no one has the right to compete with the state monopoly on law enforcement. In addition, in a democratic country no one has the right to threaten others. "The Hungarian state proved that it is able and ready to defend itself against every kind of unconstitutional attempt." Nice words but the question is not only whether Hungary has a legal system that can issue an injunction against the Hungarian Guard but whether the police are strong enough to enforce that verdict. And I'm not at all sure of that. I hope I'm wrong.

Die Zeit on the Hungarian far right

Political commentators in Hungary are buzzing about a lengthy article condemning the Hungarian far right in the prestigious and influential German weekly, Die Zeit. The title of the article itself is telling: "Under the flag of fascists." Christian Schmidt-Häuer obviously calls it as he sees it. He doesn't talk about the "radical right" or "the radical ones" as they are referred to in certain Hungarian circles. Rather, he argues that these people are neo-Nazis, that they are on the rampage, and that the rest of the population stands by doing nothing.

Schmidt-Häuer seems to be well informed and surely he must have had Hungarian informants who told him about the viciously anti-semitic website www.kuruc.info.hu where one can see the philosopher Gáspár Miklós Tamás's picture on a tombstone. He recalls in the article that the same website listed the addresses and telephone numbers of certain "Jews and foreigners." He is aware of the attacks against Gypsies and the attempts to blow up the houses of some socialist politicians. "Is this the home of legendary memories?" he asks, recalling the events of 1989 when Hungary opened the iron curtain and let the East German refugees cross over into Austria. A very important date for Germans.

A brief history lesson follows and the author comes to the conclusion that "today a large proportion of the Hungarian people are meandering in the maze of myths created after World War I." After that war Hungarian nationalist ideology viewed liberals and communists as the source of all the country's troubles; the Jews were accused of leading Hungarian culture astray. According to Schmidt-Häuer more and more people think that this was the case then and that this is the case now. One of the author's sources was László Lengyel, the economist and political analyst, who half jokingly told him that some Hungarian youths think that the Treaty of Trianon was signed last year and that Ferenc Gyurcsány is responsible for it!

The journalist admits that every country has its own far right whose members march here and there, but in most countries the moderate majority with the assistance of the law manages to keep these elements at bay. That is not the case in Hungary. Another problem is that the boundaries between the far right and the conservative majority are blurred. Schmidt-Häuer blames Viktor Orbán for this state of affairs. "The populist opposition leader Viktor Orbán who hopes to receive a two-thirds right-wing-conservative majority has in the past few years played the citizens against the parliament in order to overthrow the socialist-liberal coalition with the help of the street."

Finally, Schmidt-Häuer points out that, assuming Fidesz wins the next election, Orbán will have to continue Bajnai's austerity program. Then how will the far right react? What if they get even stronger in the future? No problem, Orbán would "slap them around them a bit and send them home" (just as Horthy tried). At least this is what Orbán said. The only problem is that we know how effective Horthy's slapping around of the Hungarian far right was!

As is predictable, the ever shrinking left-liberal side in Hungary felt justified when they heard about the article in Die Zeit. They have been telling the world for months that there is a neo-Nazi danger in Hungary but no one listens to them. They blame Orbán for the growth of the extreme right just as Die Zeit does. The other side is horrified at all "these lies." Once again, these liberal traitors of the national cause filled this German journalist's head full of nonsense. There is no Nazi danger in Hungary and if there is a growth of the far right it is because the government is unable to handle them. Not enough slapping around, I guess. As for the accusation that Fidesz and Viktor Orbán are not making it clear that the party has nothing to do with Jobbik and the far right, they bring up a recent statement of László Kövér who called Jobbik Fidesz's "enemy." However, the socialist-liberal side is not satisfied with this explanation. Of course, Jobbik is if not an enemy at least a rival of Fidesz. What they expect from Fidesz is a clear-cut statement that Jobbik's ideology is unacceptable and that Fidesz has absolutely nothing to do with them now or in the future. But I don't think that such a statement will be forthcoming: Orbán still hopes to get votes from the extreme right by telling these people what they want to hear.

Moderate and left of center Hungarians keep hoping that the far-right tide might be stopped somehow. The trouble is that they haven't got the foggiest idea of how to do it. They write articles about the dangers. Articles apearing in liberal dailies, weeklies, or monthlies that only liberal people read.

The Hungarian Guard and holocaust denial

The Hungarian Constitution was written to ensure freedom of speech as an absolute right (a right that, as the U.S. Constitution says, cannot be abridged), so all parliamentary attempts to limit this right have failed at the hands of the judges of the Constitutional Court. Parliament sought to constrain what we call "hate speech." There were many instances of verbal abuse of minority groups, Gypsies, Jews, or homosexuals, but the Court deemed them legal expressions of free speech. The Constitution is equally liberal when it comes to establishing parties. According to the constitution "political parties may be freely founded and may act in freedom provided they show respect for the Constitution and the statutes of constitutional law." Therefore for the past twenty years or so far-right parties could be freely established.

Last Saturday, April 18, sixty members of the Hungarian Guard, uniforms and all, demonstrated in front of the German Embassy. The Hungarian Guard a few months ago split into two not quite equal factions. The people who took part in the demonstration belong to the smaller splinter group led by István Dósa. Since the group announced its intention to march and demonstrate to the Budapest police, the sixty guardists received a police escort from the Adam Clark Square at the Chain Bridge all the way to the German Embassy in the Castle District. This splinter group openly calls itself national socialist. Banners saying "Down with the Dogma of the Holocaust" and "The Third Reich Will Fight Back" can be seen on the picture below. The guardists wanted to hand their "manifesto" to the Germans inside but, not surprisingly, the staff of the embassy refused to take it.

This Dósa-led group seems very active. Just lately they staged several demonstrations together with the Pax Hungarica Movement, also a neo-nazi organization. See http://www.paxhungarica.org/ The demonstration was staged a day before the annual "March of Life" commemorating the victims of the holocaust. Although I didn't spend much time at their web site, there was one thing that was hard to miss. In Hungarian the March of Life is called "Élet menete," but the "peaceful" Hungarian movement corrected it: "Az élősködők [the parasites'] march." A nice bunch of people in brief. Dósa otherwise is looking forward to any possible legal consequence of his action. No wonder that he is so brief: unlike in Germany or Austria holocaust denial is not a crime.

Until now it was mostly MSZP members of parliament who tried to prevent by legal means the spread of hate speech and extreme propaganda against minority groups. SZDSZ in a somewhat doctrinaire manner refused to lend a helping hand to such attempts. The liberal politicians argued that legal restrictions are useless. It is education that will solve the problem. The more enlightened and rational members of society will be able to explain to this minority that they are simply wrong. And they will see the light. I don't want to sound too pessimistic, but I'm afraid that the Hungarian liberals are naive. I suspect that none of them ever sat down with a Hungarian "national socialist" and tried to have a rational dialogue. Just today two people, one a leader of Jobbik and the other a MIÉP sympathizer, phoned in to György Bolgár's show and, although Bolgár tried his darndest to convince them of their mistaken ways, his callers didn't budge an inch from their earlier position.

It seems that the activity of these sixty guardists was too much even for SZDSZ. First of all, some of their leaders called Jobbik, the party that brought the Hungarian Guard to life, a neo-nazi organization. Also, they would now like to introduce legislation that would make denial of the holocaust a crime. On Monday several parliamentary members (MSZP and SZDSZ) demanded a change in the constitution. Fidesz offered a different agenda: a parliamentary committee to investigate the role of the police. Why the police didn't stop the demonstration, a demonstration that as far as I can see was perfectly legal, however abhorrent.

Jobbik's reaction was interesting. One of the vice presidents of the party explained to Bolgár today that this Hungarian Guard is not their Hungarian Guard. They are in no way responsible for what Dósa's Hungarian Guard does. (Mind you, outwardly one cannot distinguish between the two groups: same uniform, same everything.) Moreover, Jobbik will sue every politician who called Jobbik a nazi party. I have already counted at least three such politicians: Gábor Fodor (SZDSZ), Péter Gusztos (SZDSZ), and Ildikó Lendvai (MSZP). As she put it: "A nazi is a nazi and shame is shame." Jobbik is not a right radical party but a nazi party. One ought to mention that Jobbik is doing quite well according to the polls. If elections were held today, Jobbik most likely would have parliamentary representation. It is also possible that Jobbik will be able to send a person to the European Parliament, the unspeakable Krisztina Morvai. On the other hand, SZDSZ, representing the liberals who call Jobbik a nazi party, has very little support. As things now stand it's unlikely that the party will be represented in either the European or the Hungarian Parliament.

György Bolgár was asked by the Jobbik representative what he considers to be characteristics of the nazi ideology. Bolgár listed a few: racism, homophobia, chauvinism, xenophobia, militarism. Jobbik doesn't think that any of these characteristics apply to their beliefs. Racism? Oh no, they simply talk about "gypsy crime." Homophobia? Oh no, they just think that it is a sick minority whose freedom should be limited. Chauvinism?  Oh no, they are simply patriotic and want to defend the country. Xenophobia? Oh no, they just want to defend the Hungarians against foreigners. Militarism? Oh no, they would like a conscript army where Hungarian youngsters would receive a "patriotic education."

Meanwhile, Gusztos and Fodor keep repeating that it would be an awful shame if the third largest party in Hungary were neo-nazi. I guess this is an appeal to the former liberal voters who turned their backs on SZDSZ to think before they vote.

Viktor Orbán's speech on March 15

Unfortunately there seems to be no hope of changing political discourse in Hungary. At least this is my impression after reading a few newspaper accounts of Viktor Orbán's speech this afternoon. Today is a national holiday: it was on March 15, 1848, that news of the revolution that broke out in Vienna reached Pest. It is on March 15 that the birth of parliamentary democracy is celebrated in Hungary.

The police were well prepared because by now no national holiday passes without some disturbance. Those who create trouble are small groups of extreme rightwingers who seem to go from event to event and try to fluster the speakers. This year at least there was no egg throwing because a few months ago a judge with some sense decided that throwing eggs is not a legitimate expression of free speech. Thus the "brave" men of the right held up pieces of paper on which one could read that the person would like to throw an egg at Gábor Demszky, mayor of Budapest, but under the circumstances this piece of paper will have to do. By the way, according to Hungarian law the organizers of demonstrations in the past that created havoc (rocks thrown at the police, cars burned, etc.) can continue to organize demonstrations with impunity. The police have no right to cancel their demonstrations although there might be good reason to believe that last year's disturbances will be repeated.

A few people demonstrated in front of parliament. But the greatest attraction for the demonstrators was the National Museum where Petőfi allegedly recited his famous poem, "Rise Hungarians!" It was in front of Petőfi's statue that Gábor Demszky spoke. While at other places there were only a handful of people, here the reports talked about at least a thousand. Whatever their numbers, they were certainly noisy. They kept on going even when Demszky asked for a moment of silence to remember the deaths of Marian Cozma, the handball player, and the father and son who were killed in Tatárszentgyörgy. One would have thought that at least in Cozma's case they would show some respect. But, no. They went on. Altogether the police arrested nineteen people at these demonstrations.

No one disturbed the speech of Viktor Orbán. A few years ago Fidesz tried to find a place that was big enough to hold many thousands, but this year Orbán spoke on a relatively small square in the Castle district. There were still a lot of people spilling over to the side streets, but in the cramped medieval castle with its narrow streets crowds look bigger than they actually are. It had been raining all day, but by the time Viktor Orbán began his speech the rain stopped. After Orbán's earlier "state of the union" speech everybody commented on his relative moderation. He tried to talk to the middle, commentators said. He didn't want to alienate anybody. That was certainly not his tone today.

He again talked about his political opponents as the enemies of the country. The people currently in charge are "pitiful men of hopelessness" who in the last seven years have completely ruined the country. The current crisis is not economic in nature but political and therefore only a political solution can solve it. He and his followers must take the country back from the representatives of the old world. Orbán accused the current government of trying to return to the socialism of János Kádár. "Our trouble is that the country is ruled by a political clan whose members can't resign themselves to the demise of the socialist regime." This is, of course, nothing more than a brazen lie because if anyone is using socialist slogans it is Orbán and the representatives of Fidesz. According to him, the government of Gyurcsány achieved nothing; it only ruined the lives and work of millions. Hungary should belong to those who worked, who struggled, who sacrificed, those who love this country, its people, its language, its earth, and its air. Those who love its past, its present, and its future. Those who remain in the country, those who see it as great even when it is small. Those who believe in it.

Orbán made no secret of his plans: "Day by day we must destroy the resistance of the Hungarian government." He is actually doing a very good job. Attack after attack, trying to make the government's work impossible. The government was accused of heinous crimes: "It terrorizes people, it tries to intimidate independent institutions, tries to break up the judicial system." If anything, the problem with the current Hungarian government is its helplessness while Fidesz and its supporters everywhere--from the ministerial offices to the courtrooms--are doing their best to render it impotent.

According to Orbán there are two kinds of men: "the captives of yesterday and the free men of tomorrow" and "the time will come when the free men of tomorrow will turn Hungary in a different direction, toward a future where Hungary will be a strong, a much valued nation." The free men of the future, I assume, are Orbán and his political friends, but unless one is swept off his feet by his oratory one must remember that after all Viktor Orbán has been a politician for twenty years. He has been a prime minister, a member of parliament, and always a major player on the political scene. In his place I would not try to cast myself as the man of the future. Someone who has nothing to do with the past. All in all, I consider this whole speech nothing more than a falsification of history and a distortion of facts.

Meanwhile, Jobbik had a meeting with thousands in attendance and the Magyar Gárda has 650 new members. No question, it's growing. The size of the new class of recruits seems a bit frightening. I'm sure that it is frightening to Viktor Orbán as well. The radical right is growing, and at the next elections it will be Fidesz who will lose votes as a result. Perhaps the shrill voice of the speaker had something to do with that fear.