right wing party accused of starting anti Semitic sentiment in the former Communist nation. Eight Hungarian Jewish groups had filed a report with the Budapest Prosecutor General’s Office to protest against what they called the "Nazi, anti-national conduct and incitement" by the Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP).
A complaint was lodged after MIEP-Vice President Laszlo Bognar, the main target in the investigation, described the purchase of Hungary’s most popular football (soccer) club Ferencvaros by Jewish owned retail company Fotex Rt as "an act conducted against the Hungarian nation."
Bognar told a news conference in July that "Ferencvaros was sacrificed to a group of businessmen without morals who have nothing to do with Ferencvaros or the Hungarian people." He later defended his alleged anti Semitic comments saying that they reflected merely a sociological study.
His remarks were condemned however by several Hungarian churches as well as opposition Members of Parliament and the Youth and Sports Ministry.
But in a statement released late Friday the Budapest Prosecutor General’s Office said that there were no reasons for a trial against the Bognar after it was found that the politician, "had not committed an offence." Earlier the Minister of Justice Ibolya David refused to intervene in what she reportedly described as "just a football (soccer) matter."
The Prosecutor’s decision was expected to outrage Jewish leaders, who fear a revival of anti Semitism in Hungary, which was a close ally of Nazi Germany till nearly the end of World War Two. At least 600.000 Hungarian Jews died during the Holocaust in Nazi concentration camps.
Analysts fear that the decision could mean a boost for MIEP, which is already expected to do well during next year’s Parliamentary elections. Under Hungarian law, any decision to halt an inquiry or trial can be appealed, but it was not immediately clear if the Jewish organizations would use that right.
"I am sometimes afraid that we are seeing the same situation as during the thirties, when the ground was prepared for War War Two," Hungarian Christian Journalist and respected analyst Tamas S. Kiss of the Budapest Sun Newspaper told BosNewsLife. "Many people are disappointed in politics and may give MIEP a chance more than a decade after the system change," he added.
Last month the Director Foreign Relations of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, Erno Lazarovits, said he is saddened that more than 10 years after the collapse of Communism politicians are misusing Hungary’s new found freedom for expressions of anti Semitism.
Lazarovits, a Holocaust survivor, told BosNewsLife that he still hopes that the younger generation will learn from the mistakes of the past, at a time when the country wants to join the European Union and other Western organizations.
