Ungarn: Rechtsextreme dominieren Nationalfeiertag

Robert Hodgson kommentiert in der Budapest Times vom 26.20.2009 den Verlauf des 53. Jahrestages des Ungarnaufstandes von 1956 am vergangenen Freitag und konstatiert, die rechtsextreme Partei Jobbik und andere Neonazi-Gruppen hätten das öffentliche Bild des Nationalfeiertages dominiert. Er schreibt unter anderem:

The official wreath laying and flag hoisting took place behind hundreds of metres of metal barriers, with platoons of riot police on standby. The day was, in the end, dominated by a huge rally held by the ultra-nationalist party Jobbik in the centre of the capital. […] Fear of egg-wielding hecklers meant the official commemorations, attended by Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and President László Sólyom, were bleak affairs on empty, damp and misty squares in front of the parliament building and across town at 56-osok tere (56-ers Square). They were watched only by the television cameras of state-owned MTV. […]

There was plenty of extremism around. As has become the norm since 2006, the far right was very active. Some 500 or so turned up at the controversial Turul statue in District XII to hear the ursine head of the nationalist Hungarian Justice and Life Party. A couple motorcycle groups held rides from one national symbol to another. The 64 Counties Youth Movement, a nationalist organisation that harks back to a larger Hungary and draws much of its support from young Hungarian speakers in neighbouring countries, held a demo on Szabadság tér and called for the release of György Budaházy, a figurehead of the nationalist underground recently remanded on terrorism charges. […]

But it was the ascendant Jobbik party that stole the show. The radical nationalists took over central Budapest with a rally attended by thousands, who filled Deák tér and surrounding streets in the centre of Pest. Guest speakers included representatives of the British National Party, the French National Front and other European far right parties that have representation in Brussels.

The leader of Jobbik’s recently elected EU trio, MEP Krisztina Morvai, won applause when she told the crowd „we must banish those who shoot to blind from Hungarian politics”. She was referring to heavy-handed police intervention against violent anti-government protesters in 2006. Dozens of bystanders were among those injured when police used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets on 23 October three years ago. „The future belongs to people like us,” Morvai said. Party leader Gábor Vona told the assembled masses that Jobbik will soon be the „strongest party in Hungarian politics”.