This article, by the Hungarian journalist János Gadó, has been translated and edited by Karl Pfeifer. On September 22nd, Gadó will appear in a Budapest court to face a defamation charge brought by Tamás Polgár, the far-right activist discussed below.
On April 7, 2008 we defended the Újlipótváros, a centre of Budapest Jewry. At the corner of Hollán Ernõ street, we stopped the demonstrators with black uniforms. Fighting both their fear and the mentality that “it is better not do anything,” antifascists, Budapest Jews, liberals, leftists and some conservative supporters organized themselves and waited for the extremists planning to “buy tickets.”
Continue reading ‘Confronting the Fascists on Budapest’s Streets’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
In Hungary, both Holocaust denial and incitement against Jews, Roma, the gay community and the left are permissible. But Tibor Bakács, a journalist, has been fined by a Hungarian court for describing a gang of racist, antisemitic bikers as “fascists.”
Continue reading ‘Hungary’s Biased Justice’
Terry Glavin has drawn my attention to a certain group of protesters at a demonstration about Gaza in the Canadian city of Calgary, which provides yet more proof of the murky overlap between the extremes of right and left.
Continue reading ‘Nazis for Hamas’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Flushed with its success in September’s elections, the right-wing extremist Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) is urging moves to scrap the Austrian law that bans Nazi activity and attempts to revive Nazism. Norbert Hofer, an FPÖ MP, has suggested a referendum to test public opinion on abolition of the law. He is supported by his party’s leader Heinz-Christian Strache.
Continue reading ‘Austria’s Far Right and Selective Free Speech’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna. His report here is based upon translations from the Hungarian press
On October 25, 400 new members of the Hungarian Guard, including some children, took the oath of the extreme right-wing movement in Budapest’s Heroes Square.
Continue reading ‘Right Wing Extremists Take to Budapest’s Streets’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Antisemitism is tolerated in Hungary - and not only in its crudest form, as when a uniformed rabble marches in the streets or when Neo-Nazis provoke Jews in front of their synagogues. It is also part and parcel of Hungarian right wing politics. Usually antisemitism is coded, but the code is very simple. Here is just one recent example.
Continue reading ‘“The cosmopolitan-parasite class…”: Antisemitism in Hungary’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
UPDATE, OCTOBER 16: Haider’s successor has confirmed that Haider was drunk - very drunk - when he crashed his car.
The Austrian papers are full of pictures of the suntanned politician Jörg Haider, who was a man for all seasons and who learned the lesson from American politicians to always smile and to shake hands with everybody. If one could believe some newspapers and some declarations of the Austrian political elite, a sort of Austrian Mother Teresa has passed away. The former Social Democrat Heinz Fischer, who is now President of Austria, described Haider’s death as a “human tragedy.”
Continue reading ‘Jörg Haider: A Leader Who Died As He Lived’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Austria does usually not make international political headlines, but managed to do so on 28 September when the country’s main two extreme right wing parties, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) led by H.C. Strache and the Alliance for Austria’s Future (BZÖ) led by Jörg Haider, together won 29% of the parliamentary election vote, giving the lie to those who claim that the extreme right is going to be marginal in Austria.
Continue reading ‘Austria: The Fascist Stench Returns’
