Hungarian Spectrum

Back to 1939: The Hungarian right-wing press

One of my favorite essayists is András Nyerges who for a number of years has been writing a column entitled "Színrebontás" (Color Separation) in Élet és Irodalom and earlier in Magyar Hírlap. Nyerges is also a poet and novelist, but I'm most familiar with him through his writings in the press about the press. In his column he talks about the past as part of today. In almost all of his pieces he calls attention to the continuum of past and present. He must have spent countless hours in the Hungarian National Library's collection of newspapers and periodicals pouring over thousands and thousands of newspapers from the interwar period. He is especially fascinated by the publications of the extreme right. I wrote about Nyerges in this blog twice previously. Once when I finished his autobiographical volume about his childhood and again when I read one of his "Color Separation" pieces about Hungarian journalistic reactions to the rise of Hitler and the fall of the Weimar Republic ("The Hungarian Republic and Weimar," March 14, 2009). Last week he wrote about the 1939 elections apropos of the European parliamentary elections of 2009.

Nyerges doesn't dwell on the reasons for the rise of the extreme right in that particular election but rather concentrates on contemporary comments on the results of it. These comments have a familiar ring. For example, Nemzet Szava, a paper close to the Arrow Cross party, noted that the elections showed that "we are not extremists." Yes, they are mainstream and "the extremists are those leftists who are trying to turn the hands of the clock backwards." Magyar Szó, another far-right daily, proclaimed that "in the coming years there can be no other political trend but that of the right. The masses behind the last Mohicans of the liberal past have disappeared. The party that until very recently considered itself the only rightful representative of the Hungarian working people is in its death throes. As a political factor it is already gone." It might be useful here to quote Viktor Orbán from yesterday: "What happened was not an electoral accident. On June 7 a new political system came into being" that Orbán calls "centrist." "This new order has been taking shape for a long time down in the deep but now it came to the surface....The essence of this new system is that only one political force exists that is capable of governing." The demise of the socialists and liberals is complete, their resurrection, if at all, is far in the future.

The newspapers that supported MÉP (Magyar Élet Pártja), just like newspapers close to Fidesz today, were not too worried about the spectacular showing of the extreme right. Instead they rejoiced over the meager results of the left-liberal camp. For example, Új Magyarság's editorial a day after the elections stated that "the days of liberalism and democracy are over for good. From the very beginning of the campaign the public mood clearly predicted the victory of the right and the triumph of nationalism. Their march couldn't be stopped either by judeo-liberalism or by democracy whose credibility and reputation have been lost. Marxism, which everybody knew sooner or later would be the representative of only the Jewry, has suffered a frightful defeat. The liberal parties completely disappeared because the people realized that they have nothing in common with them." Not a word about the extreme right.

But the Hungarist/Nazi press had its answer to the editorial of Új Magyarság. Magyar Szó wrote: "The remaining small liberal camp and its weak press as well as the swollen [traditional] right try to frighten the political illiterates with the bogeyman of radicalism and comfort themselves that everything is just fine and dandy." (Similar to the voices after the EU election that hoped that the extremists once in parliament would be tamed because after all the voters for these parties are not really nice respectable citizens but members of the underclass.) Kálmán Hubay, president of the Arrow Cross Party in the absence of Ferenc Szálasi who was in jail at the time, made it clear that the size of their electorate shows that these parties are no longer representatives of fringe elements but must be considered mainstream. They need no taming. Hubay strongly objected to the "disrespectful" way others talked about them and their voters. "He regretted that he had to be the one to explain that one ought to talk differently about the second largest party in the country."

Then, just as now, everybody tried to figure out where the votes for the extremists were coming from. The traditional right tried to quiet fears that the votes came from their side and kept emphasizing that the Nazi votes came from the left. According to an interview published in Magyar Szó (June 2, 1939), Hubay was offended because such a supposition would indicate that "the present advance is not the triumph of an idea." After all, that would indicate that those who voted for Arrow Cross are people "who are always in opposition, who are only restless revolutionary elements. They were behind the Reds and now they stand behind the extreme right." However, said Hubay, this is not so and he can prove it by the numbers. He took the figures from the 1926 elections that he described as the "golden age of the Reds" when the social democrats received 128,000 votes; in 1939 they got 102,000 votes. The Arrow Cross Party alone received 673,871 votes so for Hubay it was a "mathematical puzzle" how it was possible that national socialist parties got their voters from the Social Democratic Party. Let me point out here that Hubay was misleading. In 1926 altogether 1,143,583 votes were cast; in 1929 almost double that--2,193,054!

It was also pointed out that the Arrow Cross campaign was well organized and their propaganda more effective than that of other parties. Magyar Szó dwelt on this on June 2, 1939. "The Arrow Cross party proved at the elections that masses are behind it and that in its functioning, in its tactics, in its propaganda and in its organizational methods they are cleverer, stronger, and smarter than the others." I think a similar situation exists today. Both Fidesz and Jobbik are much better at propaganda, organization, and campaign tactics than their opponents. Jobbik's discovery of the not so latent anti-Roma feelings prevalent in the country and its organization of the Hungarian Guard certainly were very effective in its campaign and brought unexpected and spectacular results.

As for the relationship between the traditional right and the extreme right, it is worth reading István Milotay's piece in Új Magyarság, a government paper (June 4, 1939). According to Milotay the Hungarian press "that is still in mostly Jewish hands" tried everything to stop the march of the right. They waged a "crusade" against their leaders and "yet they didn't succeed." But then comes the really interesting part. Milotay realized that the appearance of the extreme right that "is behind the [traditional] right majority is restless" and thus the "conservative right" is facing an opposition like "its own shadow." And he continued: "the right-wing majority must face those spirits that they themselves let out from the magic bottle and which now freed know neither limit nor consideration." Nyerges remarks here that if Milotay had finished his analysis here he could be considered an objective observer. However, he offered his advice to the "right majority" on the issue of how to handle this delicate situation. He suggested cooperation with the extreme right. After all, the extreme right-wing parties "cannot be suppressed by sheer force and their repression would only increase their resistance and their conquering strength." At the end of the article he added that, after all, these extremist parties "may become useful, stimulating, improving factors.... My guess is that as far as the larger goals are concerned there is hardly any difference between the right-wing parties."

This Milotay piece also sounds very familiar. There are those who keep repeating that Viktor Orbán allowed the evil genie out of the bottle and now is facing an opposition on his right as well. There are also voices that suggest not fighting the extremists because any attempt at suppressing them would only give them strength. There are those who suggest cooperation with the extreme right on the, in my opinion, naive assumption that they can be tamed. As we know, Viktor Orbán for weeks after the election refused to deal with Jobbik. For a while he acted as if Jobbik didn't exist. His party did extremely well and he didn't seem to care that Jobbik received almost 15% of the votes. And finally, according to many observers there are no basic differences between Fidesz and Jobbik. The differences are superficial and mostly noticeable in linguistic usage.

But let's get back to 1939. Milotay's offer of cooperation wasn't welcomed by Hubay who in light of his party's strength answered in A Nép. "We are not intoxicated by our victory, we are not celebrating, we are not partying, we are not toasting and we don't heap praise on each other. It's not our style.... We want to prepare ourselves for the next elections that will be decisive." And finally he made it clear that "we are not making deals with anyone. We are going ahead on our lonely road." How familiar. Viktor Orbán only yesterday made it clear for the first time that he will not have Jobbik members in his government. It didn't take more than an hour before Gábor Vona answered: they have no plans to share power with Fidesz or anyone else. He is going "on his lonely road" to the decisive moment when he will govern Hungary.

According to Nyerges the results of the 1939 elections didn't lead to self-examination on the part of either the left or the traditional right. Neither of the two camps took the warnings coming from the extreme right seriously. Just like Vona, the national socialists were certain that at the next elections there will be a "national socialist majority." As it turned out, without Hitler's help that couldn't happen. So let's be hopeful. The only worry is that Orbán might cooperate with Jobbik out of desperation and  make too many concessions to the extreme right. Something like that happened once, between 1998 and 2002, but then MIÉP was nowhere near as strong as Jobbik seems now. The consequences of such cooperation might pose a greater danger in 2010 and beyond.

Cooperation contract signed by Hungarian extreme right groups

Paramilitary groups are multiplying. First there was the Hungarian Guard (Magyar Gárda). Soon enough the Nemzeti Őrsereg (National Garrison) came into public view, and just today I encountered the Betyársereg (Army of Outlaws). Because Jobbik has become so notorious and received such unexpectedly strong support at the European parliamentary elections it is easy to forget about the other right-wing groups. For instance, László Gonda and his Magyar Nemzeti Bizottság (Hungarian National Committee), Tamás Polgár (better known as Tomcat), or the young László Toroczkai with his Hatvannégy Vármegye Ifjúsági Mozgalom (HVIM or, in English, Youth Movement of the Sixty-Four Counties). Hungary today of course doesn't have 64 counties. The Kingdom of Hungary, including Croatia-Slavonia, had seventy-two but Toroczkai is generous and let the Croats with their eight counties leave Hungary and remain independent!! György Budaházy needs no introduction. I talked about him just yesterday on the occasion of his arrest on charges of attempted murder and terrorist activity. Lately Gonda and Tomcat seem to have faded into the background; stealing the limelight is Toroczkai and his HVIM. Gábor Vona, head of Jobbik, specifically mentioned him and his movement as a great source of assistance in the campaign before the EP elections.

Last weekend the most important extreme right-wing groups got together in Szeged for a conference. Why Szeged? Because the Hungarian counterrevolutionary forces gathered in that town--then under French occupation--in the summer of 1919. It was there that Miklós Horthy, retired rear-admiral, became head of the National Army. After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic this army, carefully avoiding the Romanians, moved through Transdanubia to Siófok on the shore of Lake Balaton. Hundreds if not thousands of Hungarians (communists and Jews) fell victim to the National Army's sweep across western Hungary.

So who attended the Hungarian extreme right meetings in Szeged and later in the nearby Pusztaszer where according to legend the first parliamentary meeting of Hungarians took place in 895-896? (Legend indeed: a parliament in the year of the Hungarian tribes' arrival in the Carpathian basin?) Some of the names are very well known: Gábor Vona, György Budaházy, and László Toroczkai. But there were others I wasn't familiar with. For example, György Gyula Zagyva, who is the president of the HVIM and otherwise busies himself with the Szent Korona Rádió (Holy Crown Radio). More on that station here: http://szentkoronaradio.com/ Another name unknown to me was Balázs Sziva, the leader of a rock band known as the Romantikus Erőszak (Romantic Violence). He represented the numerous rock bands that specialize in spreading extreme nationalistic and Nazi messages. For example, Romantic Violence composed a song entitled "Fegyverbe! Fegyverbe!" (Call to Arms!) This particular song was so effective that on October 23, 2007, demonstrators led by Budaházy and Toroczkai physically attacked the police monitoring the demonstration. Another new name for me (but then I'm not searching the internet for extreme right groups) was Tibor Ágoston, head of the National Garrison group. He hails from Debrecen and has a web site (http://szebbjovo.jobbikdebrecen.hu/taxonomy/term/75) in which one can read that "in our present situation it is our patriotic duty to be antisemitic." He seems to have close ties with Jobbik if one can believe the site. The National Garrison is an organization of "traditionalists" (hagyományőrzők) who seem to be fascinated by the traditions of Hungary. Unfortunately, some of these groups are guardians of traditions that would best be forgotten. I wrote about them on July 1, 2007 (Guardians of tradition). Also present were Róbert Kiss, head of Magyar Gárda, and Zsolt Tyirityán, head of the Army of Outlaws. In addition someone attended from the Össznemzeti Szurkolói Szövetség (All-National Association of Soccer Fans). In plain language, the football hooligans.

Because György Budaházy attended the gathering that forged cooperation among the various extremist groups Toroczkai immediately announced that the authorities arrested him not because of terrorist activities but because of his cooperation with Jobbik and other right-wing groups. In fact, the government is retaliating because of the excellent showing of Jobbik. This is the first move against this successful party. Toroczkai told the media today that if the NNI doesn't release Budaházy within three days they will organize a huge demonstration for July 4.

Meanwhile Csanád Szegedi, the third man on Jobbik's EP list and therefore heading soon to Brussels, proclaimed at a meeting organized by HVIM: "we are going to Brussels to topple the Trianon borders." Wow! That will go over very well in the European parliament! He admits that changing Hungary's borders won't happen overnight. Even Szegedi says that it might take two or three generations. They will also demand complete autonomy for the territories where Hungarians are in the majority in Romania. And they have even more ambitious plans: they want to incorporate territories south of the Carpathian mountains belonging to Ukraine at the present.

After the EP elections political observers tried to guess what Jobbik's policy would be in the wake of such an impressive victory. Some people hoped that they would be less belligerent. That doesn't seem to be the case, as is evident from Csanád Szegedi's rant about Trianon. László Toroczkai, a close ally of Jobbik, also has a few ideas about Hungary's future that may not meet the approval of Hungary's democratic neighbors or the European Union. Toroczkai was asked whether he would support a Hungarist (Nazi) government. The answer was yes. Their historical predecessors whom they proudly claim are Miklós Horthy, Ferenc Szálasi, and Adolf Hitler.

Meanwhile Fidesz is at a loss. Viktor Orbán and Zoltán Pokorny say a few nasty things about Jobbik while the second string--most likely with approval from above--build bridges to the neo-Nazi party and its allies. István Tarlós, not a Fidesz party member but head of the Fidesz caucus of the Budapest city council, attended a meeting where members of the Hungarian Guard were present and red and white striped flags could be seen. He made a speech which he ended with the official greeting of the Hungarian Guard: "Szebb jövőt!" (Better Future). The origin of the greeting is not quite clear. According to some accounts it was the greeting used by the "levente mozgalom," a paramilitary youth organization in Hungary between the two world wars by means of which the Hungarian government tried to circumvent the restrcitions imposed on the size of its army by the victors. Others associate the greeting with the far-right party of Béla Imrédy in the late thirties. Ferenc Szálasi's Hungarist Nazi party definitely used it. Tarlós was severely criticized for sinking down to the level of this, let's face it, Nazi paramilitary organization. His answer was that he didn't know anything about this greeting and anyway there is nothing wrong with it because these words can be found in the Marseillaise. The French national anthem is very long and perhaps I missed it, but I couldn't find "better future" in either the French or the English version. István Stumpf, the former right-hand man of Orbán in the prime minister's office and a so-called political scientist, also tried to minimize the extremism of Jobbik. Another so-called political scientist but in fact a Fidesz propagandist described the relation between Fidesz and Jobbik as one of "rivals but not enemies." Gábor Czene, a journalist for Népszabadság, summarized the situation between Jobbik and Fidesz as "an exciting but stomach turning political parlor game."

The Hungarian extreme right in its own voice

László Szarka, commenting on this blog, couldn't have picked a better time to espouse his views because his post enables me to expand a bit on what Tibor Závecz, researcher for Szonda Ipsos, said in his brief interview about the Hungarian extreme right.

Szarka's ideas are typical of this group of extreme nationalists. First and foremost, his post is dripping with self-pity. Every nation of the former Soviet bloc with the notable exception of Hungary got everything it ever wanted. The Hungarians are still suffering. In fact, as Szarka himself intimates, the communists have remained in power in Hungary with the full support of the United States. For good measure he mentions Europe as well, but this is a later addition to the original conspiracy theory called the Pact of Rózsadomb (Hill of the Roses, perhaps the plushest district in Buda). According to this urban legend, on March 15, 1989 (according to another version on March 15, 1991) there was a secret meeting in one of the villas of the Rózsadomb of the general of the Soviet army that occupied Hungary, a colonel of the KGB, the first secretary of the United States Embassy, an officer of the CIA, a representative of Mossad, and representatives of the Catholic church and the Jewish community. They agreed that in exchange for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, they would retard the development of Hungarian democracy and the country's economic well-being. The document, consisting of twenty points, was signed by József Antall (MDF), Gyula Horn (MSZP), Iván Pető (SZDSZ), László Paskai (head of the Hungarian Catholic Church), Árpád Göncz (SZDSZ, later president of the republic), Gusztáv Zoltai (Jewish community) and Péter Boross (MDF). Without going into the details of the contents of this alleged document, it's enough to mention a few salient points. The national wealth would be passed into the hands of the communists, former communist party members wouldn't be punished, trusted communists would be smuggled into other parties, anti-Semitic propaganda would be forbidden, far-right parties wouldn't be allowed to function, friendship with the Soviet Union would be the lynchpin of foreign policy, and so on and so forth.

Szarka then moves on to "Magyars are oppressed again." The choice of words is telling. Not the people, not the population is oppressed; the "Magyars" are oppressed. And who are the oppressors? Surely, the non-Magyars. In plain language: the Jews.These people are not only not Hungarians but they are members of a criminal underworld. (When one hears the details of Hír TV's two young reporters and their activities one wonders who belongs to a criminal underworld. But breaking into the computers of the MSZP ad agency before the elections by members of the Fidesz campaign staff was a precedent for bad behavior.)

Then comes a predictable addendum to an age-old story. The only true Hungarians are those who refuse to accept the Treaty of Trianon. Eighty years after the ratification of the Treaty of Trianon Hungary has managed relatively well considering the huge territorial losses. It is true that economic growth never reached the pre-1914 level, but the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy all suffered economically as a result of the loss of a large common market and the high tariff barriers each of these countries erected against the others.

Let's go back to Szarka's first claim: "every nation got what they wanted, except Hungary." Hmm! I haven't heard that Poland got back the territories it lost in 1939 as a result of the Soviet occupation. The Poles fought throughout the war (Home Army) alongside the Allies, and yet the best they could get was some compensation on the western border at the expense of Germany. I haven't heard that the East Germans (Prussians) got back East Prussia or Königsberg. I haven't heard that the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians managed to expel all those Russians who settled in the Baltic States after 1939. That's nonsense too, isn't it, Mr. Szarka?

As for the oppression of Brussels and Washington. We all know about the billions of euros Hungary has received as a result of the so-called convergence program. You know, Mr. Szarka, what "convergence" means? It means that the wicked West wants Hungary to raise the standard of living of the Hungarian people to the level of the more developed western part of the European Union. That's the oppression of Brussels. As for the oppression of Washington: American capital played a pivotal role in the early 1990s in building up modern industrial capacity (General Electric, for example) in place of a collapsed Hungarian industry that couldn't produce anything that could be sold outside of the Soviet bloc. There was no Hungarian capital that could jump start the economy; there was only debt.

Luckily those people who are running the country have a different worldview from Mr. Szarka and his fellow Hungarists. They know that Hungary's ruin would be the kind of political and economic future the Hungarists have in mind. These people's problem is that they know so little about the world in general. History? Economics? Globalization? Competition? No, their most important consideration is national symbols. One cannot eat national symbols. I hear turul meat is very tough, and there are not too many turuls in the first place. And please don't dare utter "1956." It really offends me. And when you read the rantings of Mr. Szarka, think about it: there are 799,999 more like him.

Followers of Arrow Cross? Hungarian neo-nazis?

This blog was inspired by the recent far-right gathering at the controversial statue of the mythical eagle that ostensibly gave birth to the founder of the House of Árpád, the ancestor of the first kings of Hungary. Fortunately at this gathering there was no major violence although two newspapermen were roughed up a bit. Predictably there was a lot of verbal abuse against Jews and others who aren't protected/endorsed by the eagle. What was interesting and unusual about this particular gathering of the extreme right was that for the first time Fidesz and KDNP (Keresztény Demokrata Néppárt/Christian Democratic Party) politicians could be seen among the demonstrators. The best known among them was Béla Turi-Kovács, a member of parliament since 1998. In his first four years he represented the Smallholders' Party, a coalition partner of Fidesz. After 2001-2002 when Viktor Orbán managed to get rid of József Torgyán and with him the Smallholders, Turi Kovács abandoned his old party and joined Fidesz. As for the Christian Democrats, it's true that no KDNP member of parliament was present; however, the party was represented by several of the local council's KDNP's delegation. In addition, one could find in the crowd Zsolt Lányi, a former Smallholder member of parliament and undersecretary of defense in the Orbán government.

That was one source of the inspiration. Another was an old article from 2003 that appeared in Hetek (Weeks), a publication of the fundamentalist Hitgyülekezet (Assembly of God) which is in Hungary somewhat surprisingly politically liberal. An internet friend of mine sent me the link, adding: "Sometimes it is worth reading old articles." The piece in Hetek (2003) is an interview with Tamás Szemenyei-Kiss who claims to be the last director of the Hungarist Movement's News Service (Hungarista Mozgalom Hírszolgálata [HMH]). I did a little research on Szemenyei-Kiss and he is certainly a controversial character. Recently he has published in Sófár, a Jewish media site, about members of the network of Hungarists all over the world. How does a former director of HMH end up writing in Sófár? A far-far right-wing site called Metapedia brands him a turncoat, a communist spy, a Romanian agent, an alcoholic homeless person, someone who had to flee Germany because he was going to be arrested for larceny. Maybe, but Metapedia 's mission is to set us straight about all the liberal lies that have been fed to us. They also want "to defend Europe [not the European Union] from the brown, black, and yellow hordes." Anyone who's interested in this garbage can go to: http://hu.metapedia.org/ However, László Bartus, currently the editor-in-chief of Amerikai Magyar Népszava Szabadság, while still living in Hungary published a book entitled Jobb magyarok: A szélsőjobb útja a hatalomhoz, 1990-2000 [Budapest: 2001] which relied on some of Szemenyei-Kiss's information about the Hungarists abroad. Szemenyei-Kiss claims that he has a 3,000-page archive that he is organizing at the moment and that this archive is deposited in the Hungarian National Library. I simply cannot make a judgment on who is right, who is wrong, but some of Szemenyei-Kiss's information sounds plausible. At least the names and dates seem to jibe.

According to Szemenyei-Kiss among those who left Hungary in 1945-46 and ended up in western countries there were a fair number of Arrow Cross leaders, members, and sympathizers. Quite a few of them ended up in Venezuela--for example, Árpád Henney, deputy to Szálasi, and Zoltán Nyisztor, a Catholic priest. These two men organized the HMH, whose mission was to keep Hungarist sympathizers in touch with one another through publications in Australia, South America, and Canada. When in 1990 Hungary joined the family of democratic nations, the Hungarists became active in Hungary. According to Szemenyei-Kiss the plan was to help the Smallholders become sufficiently important to be part of the government. Two wealthy American-Hungarian businessmen financed the undertaking: Sándor Pákh and  Géza Bánkuty.  In 1997 Pákh and Bánkuty visited Hungary urging cooperation with the Smallholders, but, again according to Szemenyei-Kiss, the Hungarists (200-300,000 strong) could not work with Torgyán. If Zsolt Lányi had been the leader the party it would have been a different story because he is a Hungarist. [Here let me interject that I have also read quite a bit about Lányi and I can only say that he is so far to the right that his appearance at the demonstration at the Turul statue is not at all surprising.]

Szemenyei-Kiss claims that several million dollars were sent to the Hungarist cause from abroad. In 2003 he asserted that since 1990 there had been at least 25 Hungarist members of parliament. One of the people who was financing the Hungarist movement in Hungary, Bánkuty, met Viktor Orbán several times when Fidesz was still in opposition. Once Orbán won the election with Smallholders' help Bánkuty was received in the Parliament. A picture was taken which didn't not appear in any Hungarian paper but only in the extreme right-wing paper Szittyakürt published abroad and financed by Bánkuty. According to Szemenyei-Kiss this picture also appeared in Spotlight, the American Nazis' official publication. Apparently it was at that time that Orbán's chief of protocol was sacked because he was responsible for the pictures taken at the meeting. Szemenyei-Kiss thinks that the appearance of this picture in an American Nazi publication had something to do with the fact that Viktor Orbán became a persona non grata in Washington.

How much of is this true? I don't know. However, the appearance of two former Smallholders, Turi Kovács and Lányi, at this gathering of the extreme right is certainly interesting.