“Several hundred supporters of the opposition in Hungary demonstrated yesterday against racist statements made about the Romani minority by a co-founder of the conservative governing party Fidesz in front of the party’s headquarters in Budapest. The protest was organized by the Democratic Coalition group of former socialist PM Ferenc Gyurcsányi.” Read more: via Hungary: Hundreds … Continue reading
“BUDAPEST, HUNGARY—A founding member of Hungary’s governing Fidesz party has been sharply criticized for writing a newspaper column that contained offensive remarks about the nation’s Roma minority. Writing about a New Year’s Eve bar fight in which several people were seriously injured and some of the attackers were reportedly Roma, the journalist Zsolt Bayer said … Continue reading
“MISKOLC, Hungary (Reuters) – Blaming Roma for everything from petty crime to trash on the streets, thousands of supporters of the far-right opposition Jobbik party rallied in Hungary on Wednesday in the eastern city of Miskolc. Local Roma in Hungary’s second largest city simultaneously held a counter-rally rejecting what they said were typical right-wing slurs … Continue reading
Here is an article about a recent exchange of lies and denial between Canadian Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney and Hungarian Minister of Human Resources Zoltan Balog. Excerpt: “Balog told Kenney that political reasons had nothing to do with the exodus from Hungary; allegations of organised prosecution here were false. Both officials reviewed what made … Continue reading
BUDAPEST AFP-EJP—Hungarys Prime Minister on Wednesday blamed rising anti-Semitism at home on a US-based website and urged Washington to help close this source of “provocation”. On June 21, fifty members of the Congress wrote a letter to Orban calling on the Hungarian government to fight anti-Semitism and all extreme expressions. Signatories to the letter voiced … Continue reading
Fifty members of the United States Congress called on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to stand up against the anti-Semitic and “homophobic” remarks and positions of far-right political party Jobbik, Bloomberg News reported. “We’re deeply concerned by anti-Semitic and homophobic positions espoused by members of the Jobbik party,” the lawmakers said in a letter addressed … Continue reading
Nobel peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel has renounced a Hungarian state award he received in 2004 in protest against what he said was a whitewashing of the role of former Hungarian governments in the deportation of Jews during the second world war. In a letter to the Hungarian parliament’s speaker, Laszlo Kover, Wiesel, 83, said … Continue reading
How do you know if a real storm is brewing — or if you’re just reacting to a few passing clouds? That’s a question that many Hungarians and people keeping an eye on the country are asking these days. Iren Kollanyi, 61, is one of them. She has lived here her entire life, through decades … Continue reading
The Prime Minister spoke eloquently at a Holocaust Memorial event at the Canadian War Museum, on Monday. He talked about the “sheer scale of the Holocaust,” about how remembering the Holocaust was a “cause of great importance to our country,” and about how “anti-Semitism is a disease” — a disease that turns into more generalized … Continue reading
“Many are so undemanding of themselves that they have to be made to get used to demanding work and a demanding life.” Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér in an interview with leading conservative German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung appearing under the headline Die Roma erhalten Lohn statt Sozialhilfe (“The Roma get wages instead of social benefits”) in which he … Continue reading
