Hungary
Hungary is a parliamentary democracy with a freely elected legislative
assembly. Prime Minister Gyula Horn, the leader of the Magyar Szocialista
Párt (MSzP, Hungarian Socialist Party), heads a coalition government
formed after the 1994 national elections. The coalition partner is the liberal
Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége (SzDSz, Alliance of Free
Democrats). Opposition parties include the FIDESz-Magyar Polgári
Párt (FIDESz-MPP, FIDESz- Hungarian Civic Party) and the Magyar Demokrata
Fórum (MDF, Hungarian Democratic Forum). As a top priority, the government
continued in 1996 to pursue entry into European Union institutions as well
as creating the legal and economic conditions for joining NATO.
The government has demonstrated through its economic policies its commitment
to the transition to a market economy: the private sector generates about
70 per cent of gross domestic product.
Gross domestic product rose by 1.5 per cent in 1996; the inflation rate
remained at around 24 per cent; the unemployment rate hovered between 10
and 11 per cent.
An estimated 25 per cent of the population lives in poverty, with elderly
pensioners, dependent housewives and children, and Roma most affected.
Following the emancipation of the Jews in 1867, antisemitism became a
serious issue only after the First World War (although a well-known blood
libel case occurred in 1882). In 1920 Hungary adopted the so-called numerus
clausus law, which restricted the admission of Jews to universities.
In addition, the inter-war Horthy regime was characterized by social antisemitism
as well as the de facto exclusion of Jews from certain positions
in the civil service, law, medicine and similar areas. Nevertheless, until
the early 1940s Hungary was widely perceived as something of a haven for
Jews.
Following Hitler's rise to power, and particularly after the Anschluss,
Hungary adopted a series of anti-Jewish laws as well as a forced-labour
service for Jewish men (in which between 25,000 and 40,000 perished). Antisemitic
agitation was rife. The Nazi invasion of Hungary in March 1944 led to the
destruction of much of Hungarian Jewry: close to 600,000 people were murdered,
with considerable collaboration by the Hungarian authorities.
After the Second World War there were several minor pogroms. Following the
assumption of power by the communists in 1948, anti-Zionist agitation became
a regular feature in the press, although it was generally milder than in
the neighbouring Soviet satellites.
Since the collapse of the communist regime, the rights of the Jewish population
have been fully respected. In 1994, the fiftieth anniversary of the Holocaust
in Hungary, the government officially apologized for Hungarian complicity
in the Holocaust.
Conditions within the Roma community are significantly worse than among
the rest of the population. Roma suffer from discrimination and racist attacks
and are considerably less educated, with lower-than-average incomes and
life expectancy. The Roma unemployment rate is estimated to be 70 per cent,
over six times the national average.
The deplorable conditions within the Roma community were documented in July
by the human rights non-governmental organization Helsinki Watch. The Helsinki
Watch report states that Roma have suffered disproportionately in the post-communist
economic transition, particularly in terms of unemployment and the degradation
of their urban communities into slums. Helsinki Watch reports that Roma
continue to suffer widespread discrimination in education, housing and access
to public institutions, including restaurants and pubs. While commending
government efforts to address minority issues, Helsinki Watch states that
such efforts, for the Roma, have been largely ineffective to date.
Police commonly abuse Roma. The Martin Luther King Organization, which documents
assaults on non-whites, recorded six such incidents in the first half of
1996, a higher rate of assaults than the total (seven) for 1995.
Most of the marginal far-right organizations seem to have been unable
to continue to operate in 1996. Such organizations are usually led by individuals
who returned from emigration in the West following the collapse of communism,
although several of them in particular István Csurka of the Magyar
Igazság es Élet Pártja (MIÉP, Hungarian Justice
and Life Party) and Izabella Király of the Magyar Érdek Pártja
(MÉP, Party of the Hungarian Cause) are dissidents from the MDF (see
GENERAL BACKGROUND). Neither the pro-skinhead Keleti Arcvonal Bajtársi
Szövetség (KABSZ, Eastern Front Comrades' Federation) nor the
Üldözötteinek Szövetség (US, Alliance of People
Persecuted by Communism), led by Ekrem Kemál György, appears
to have been active in 1996.
Perhaps the most active of the extremist parties in 1996 was the Magyar
Népjóléti Szövetség (MNSZ, Hungarian Welfare
Association) led by Albert Szabó (see LEGAL MATTERS). Sympathizers
of the party are mainly skinheads. In October, on the fortieth anniversary
of the 1956 uprising, Szabó called for the transportation of Hungarian
Jews to Israel and for legislation that would exclude Jews from Hungary's
political, economic, cultural and administrative life.
The most significant party of the far right remains the MIÉP. It
has around fifty representatives in local government, including Budapest;
in several local government bodies, it has entered into a coalition with
other parties, in particular the Független Kisgazda Párt (FKgP,
Independent Smallholders' and Peasant Party), the MDF and the Kereszténydemokrata
Néppárt (KDNP, Christian Democratic People's Party). The MIÉP's
theoretical periodical is Havi Magyar Fórum , its weekly publication
being Magyar Fórum (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA). The party
maintains links with Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front national (see France) and
Jörg Haider's Freedom Party (see Austria).
There were few antisemitic incidents (almost all graffiti) and no reports
of attacks by skinheads or neo-Nazi sympathizers against the Jewish community.
In March, tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Budapest were vandalized with
swastikas and in April gravestones in the largest Jewish cemetery in Budapest
were desecrated by anti-Jewish graffiti, as were a number of gravestones
in the Jewish cemetery in Heveswere.
In June it was reported that vandals had damaged gravestones in the Jewish
cemetery in Gyöngyös. In August, several hundred gravestones were
destroyed in the largest Jewish cemetery in Budapest; damage amounting to
several million forints (tens of thousands of pounds) was done.
In September a court fined the Debrecen soccer club $2,000 (Ft. 300,000)
after football fans chanted antisemitic slogans against a rival team from
Budapest.
In October two small bombs exploded in the Jewish quarter in Budapest, one
in the vicinity of the Dohány Street synagogue.
In April, for the first time since the Second World War, Hitler's Mein
Kampf was published in Hungarian. The publisher was Áron Mónus,
who had a previous conviction for his book "Conspiracy: The Nietzschean
Empire". The latter publication, which contained echoes of the The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf, was confiscated
by the authorities. Mónus claimed that Mein Kampf belonged to the
universal cultural heritage and should be made available in Hungarian "to
set things straight".
A well-known periodical of the far right is Havi Magyar Fórum
(Monthly Hungarian Forum), edited by István Csurka. Contributors
to this periodical are former MDF politicians or emigrés living mainly
in the USA. Among themes that appeared in this monthly were allegations
that the US media were in Jewish ownership.
Hunnia , a monthly that is sponsored mainly by readers in the USA
and Western Europe, resembles Havi Magyar Fórum . In 1996
Hunnia published a series of articles on Japanese racial policy before
and during the Second World War and on an alleged international anti-German
campaign. One item, in the April issue, claimed that there were no homeless
or beggars among the Jews, whereas there was an abundance of Jewish ministers,
journalists and banking experts.
There are also a number of periodicals outside official distribution channels
that are associated with far-right groups. The principal shop that sells
these periodicals in Buda-pest was closed by the city authorities in the
autumn.
This is not a frequent element of Hungarian antisemitic rhetoric. In its March issue, Hunnia reprinted an item from the journal of the US-based Institute for Historical Review (see United States of America) entitled "Sixty-one Questions and Answers about the Holocaust Legend". The article claimed that millions of European Jews had disappeared from their homes because they had emigrated to Palestine or the USA and that the estimated few hundred thousand victims who had perished in camps had died of typhoid.
Albert Szabó (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS) and three
of his followers remain involved in a lawsuit initiated in late 1995 by
the attorney general, who charged them with racial incitement against Roma
and Jews. At the trial in March 1996, despite general public expectations
and to the consternation of many, the four were acquitted: the court concluded
that there had been no incitement to racial hatred and that the defendants
had merely availed themselves of freedom of speech. In October the acquittal
was confirmed on appeal by the attorney general.
Shortly afterwards, a second lawsuit was initiated against Szabó
for incitement to hatred in a speech he had made on 23 October. In this
instance, an amendment to the penal code adopted on the initiative of President
Göncz-which penalizes violence against any person who is a member of
a national, ethnic, racial, religious or social group-will be applied. The
new legislation provides for a penalty of up to five years' imprisonment
for racial incitement.
In September, President Arpad Göncz offici-ally reopened Budapest's
Dohány Street synagogue. Two-thirds of the $800,000 reconstruction
cost was financed by the government, with the rest funded by international
donations. In October, parliament passed the Jewish Restitution Decree;
the government has earmarked over $250 million for restitution.
In December, parliament began to debate enabling legislation that will fund
a new Jewish foundation. The foundation is expected to distribute funds
to Hungarian Holocaust survivors and oversee property and restitution claims
by heirs of Holocaust victims.
The number of xenophobic and antisemitic activities in 1996 is comparable
with that of recent years. The activities of the extremists Albert Szabó
and István Csurka still give particular cause for concern. It is
to be hoped that the newly adopted legislation on racially motivated crimes
will prove effective.
© JPR 1997