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Budapest Scuffles As 'Nazi' Group Inducts Hundreds Of New Members Print E-mail Add to Favorites
Saturday, 29 March 2008
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife reporting from Budapest
Magyar Garda has some 1,500 members, officials say.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (BosNewsLife)-- Brief scuffles broke out in Budapest late Saturday, March 29, after a far-right Hungarian paramilitary 'guard' inducted hundreds of recruits who were seen wearing black uniforms and symbols reminiscent of the country's pro-Nazi regime during World War Two.

Members of the Magyar Garda, or Hungarian Guard, took their oath of loyalty to "defend Hungary" and Hungarians at Budapest's Heroes' Square, surrounded by police and a crowd of enthusiastic supporters.

Following the controversial ceremony, a small group of youngsters managed to break through a police cordon to protest against the Magyar Garda. Armed with vacuum cleaners, brooms and even air fresheners, they attempted to "clean the square of Nazi ideas."

Several Magyar Garda members and their supporters responded by kicking the youngsters and spitting at them, but they managed to escape, eyewitnesses said. Earlier a man apparently attempted to pelt Magyar Garda members with at least one egg, but he was led-away by local police.

Organizers of Saturday's gathering suggested that with the latest recruits the Magyar Garda has some 1,500 members, including a special youth branch and former fighters of the 1956 Revolution against Soviet domination. The Magyar Garda was founded last year by the by the For A Better Hungary (Jobbik), a far-right political party not yet represented in parliament, known for its views against Jews and Gypsies, who prefer to be known as Roma.

RETIRED BISHOP

Saturday's ceremony was attended by retired Reformed Bishop Lorant Hegedus and Hungary's former Defense Minister Lajor Fur. "Help to clean up the robbers of our country," Fur told the Magyar Garda recruits and their supporters.

Magyar Garda Captain Istvan Dosa warned in a speech that his recruits will "come forward with all of their strength" if the "political elite pursues anti-national politics." Although allegedly unarmed, he said the Magyar Garda has become "increasingly stronger and their support-base is growing." Officials have told BosNewsLife that they have encouraged the Magyar Garda members to take shooting lessons.

Both the government and Jewish organizations have condemned the Magyar Garda, saying the group is reminiscent of World War Two when Hungary was a close ally of Nazi Germany. Some 600.000 Hungarian Jews died during the Nazi-era. The Magyar Garda members are wearing a uniform of black pants and vests with white shirts, and a cap emblazoned with a medieval coat of arms, the Arpad Stripes.

The striped, red and white symbol is a centuries old Hungarian banner, a version of which was used by the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party that briefly ruled Hungary toward the end of World War II and enthusiastically helped murdering Jews.

HUNGARY DOWNGRADED

Britain-based Jane's Information Group, known for its military intelligence, reportedly said Friday, March 28, it had downgraded Hungary's stability outlook, in part because of concerns over right wing extremism. At place 55th, Hungary is in the worst position among what are known as the 'Visegrad Four' countries, with the Czech Republic in 30th place, Slovakia in 35th and Poland at 47th.

Earlier this week, Hungary's junior liberal governing party Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) terminated its subscription to conservative daily Magyar Hirlap after it carried an anti-Semitic article. The article, written by Zsolt Bayer and published on March 19, said that "back in 1967 the Jewish journalists of Budapest were vilifying Israel. Today the same Jewish journalists of Budapest are vilifying the Arabs and [main opposition] Fidesz, and us all. Because they hate us more than we hate them… their mere existence justifies anti-Semitism."

Besides Hungary, there have been growing extremism in other countries, including in the Czech Republic where on Saturday, March 29, some "150 far-right extremists" gathered at a memorial to German soldiers who died in the Second World War, Radio Prague reported. The event in the Moravian town of Jihlava was honored "Germans who had been victims in the war" and also denied the Holocaust ever took place, the radio network reported. One of the neo-Nazi speakers was reportedly taken questioning by local police.

Analysts have said painful, but necessary economic reforms in former communist countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic could benefit extremist groups.