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’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
According to the Budapest daily Népszabadság, the Budapest district attorney’s office has decided that the Nazi propaganda film Jud Süss can be used for incitement, but only if shown to a sympathetic audience. There will therefore be no prosecution of the Neo-Nazi group which showed the film last July to a paying audience. The liberal party (SZDSZ) is protesting and is ready to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Continue reading ‘Hungary Permits Notorious Goebbels Film’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
In late 2003, the verdict of incitement against Lóránt Hegedüs Jr, a Reformed Church minister who headed the extreme right wing Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) list for the 2004 European Parliament elections, was annulled.
Continue reading ‘Holocaust Denial and Minister Hegedüs’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
According to an article published by Ágnes Lampé in the Budapest weekly “168 óra,” the Hungarian police will not be pursuing the online edition of the “Expressz” newspaper, after it published an advertisement from a company claiming to specialize in “eradicating Jews.”
Continue reading ‘Hungary: Incitement is not a Crime’
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’
