President Ferenc Madl of one of Europe’s toughest legislations against hate speech. Madl also asked the Constitutional Court to review the law, which was this month approved by parliament following a series of incidents against Hungary’s Jewish and Roma communities.
In a statement released by his office Madl said he refused to sign the hate speech legislation because the bill could "restrict freedom to a greater extent than is constitutionally permissible."
The law, adopted earlier this month by parliament, stipulates that any person who publicly incites hatred "toward any nation, or national, ethnic, racial or religious group" could face three years in prison.
In addition, someone who "publicly insults the dignity of a person because of his or her national, racial, ethnic or religious affiliation" could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and sentenced to up to two years of imprisonment.
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
Though he has refused to sign the legislation, Madl took the step of asking the constitutional court to review the legislation to determine if it violates the free speech guarantees of the constitution. The court is expected to give its decision early next year.
The legislation came after a series of anti-Semitic incidents. Earlier this year a prominent lawyer representing racist skinheads in a trial asked the presiding judge whether she was Jewish. And in Budapest, a soccer team owned by a Jewish businessman heard rival fans chant, "The train is leaving for Auschwitz."
The foreign relations director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, Erno Lazarovits, told BosNewsLife he was shocked about the president’s decision.
"VERY DISAPPOINTED"
"I am very very disappointed! I will tell you, very frankly," said the 79-year old Lazarovits, a Holocaust survivor, who just returned from an international Hanukkah celebration for peace in Jerusalem. "I first could not believe what had happened, that in Hungary in the 21st century" the president would veto hate speech he said.
"He (President Madl) has first of all to understand who is considering himself a very big lawyer. You know he is considering himself a religious man and so on. He is always participating in all kinds of events, in different churches. He has to change his mind, because all the religions are against every hate."
But some politicians of both the governing and opposition parties have voiced support for the president’s decision. They say they are concerned that the legislation could undermine freedom of expression in a country where, for years under the communists, there was no free speech at all.
Hatred remains a sensitive issue in Hungary, which was a close ally of Nazi Germany during World War Two when about 600-thousand Jews died as well as thousands of Roma and other people the Nazis did not like.
