Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany
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Budapest (Archives)
Photo: Ofer Vardi
Hungarian PM warns of rise in anti-Semitism
Gyurcsany tells Times newspaper, ‘There have never been so many anti-Semitic remarks as now’
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Hungary since a wave of demonstrations against the Socialist-led government last year, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in comments published on Friday.
Asked whether there had been a revival of anti-Semitism since the demonstrations last September and October, the Hungarian leader said: “I have to say there have never been so many anti-Semitic remarks as now."
In an interview with the Times newspaper, Gyurcsany also said radical nationalism could grip Eastern Europe as the region resists much needed reforms.
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His wife Klara Dobrev, a law lecturer at Budapest University, was handed a leaflet last week “the likes of which we have never seen in the last 50 years in Hungary,” he said.
“It is very clear and unambiguous anti-Semitic pamphlet. This does not only outrage me because my wife is of Jewish descent,” said the prime minister, according to a transcript of the interview on the Times’s Web site.
'Something horrible happening'
Gyurcsany and his coalition of Socialists and Free Democrats survived last year’s protests touched off by the leaking of a tape in which the prime minister admitted lying about the parlous state of the economy to win national election in April.In the interview, the prime minister said that during the demonstrations a list of allegedly Jewish politicians was read out in the parliamentary square.
Gyurcsany accused members of the main right opposition Fidesz party of appearing on the same platform afterwards and failing to distance themselves.
"There is something horrible happening,” he said.
The Times said Fidesz officials deny accusations of anti-Semitism and accuse the government of using scare tactics to frighten their supporters.
Gyurcsany also had harsh words for countries from Poland to the Balkans, which he called “uncourageous modernizers”.
"The fundamental question has not been decided yet: of a progressive modernization policy, or the isolation of radical nationalism,” he said. “This is the debate that we see happening in all of these countries. Their internal division lines are different; there is a deep cultural and societal division."
The prime minister faces the prospect of further anti-government unrest on March 15, a national holiday and traditionally a day of protest under communism, with the Fidesz party saying it will stage a mass demonstration in Budapest.
