regime during World War II, the French News Agency (AFP) reported Thursday, October 14. The Hungarian Future Group, a neo-Nazi group, planned to demonstrate at the former headquarters of the Arrow Cross party in Budapest, which is now the capital’s House of Terror, a museum commemorating the victims of that era and of Communism.
"The Hungarian Future Group has a big problem now because they can no longer demonstrate where they wanted to originally because they will be interfering with another protest," AFP quoted Gabor Juhasz, state secretary at the interior ministry, as saying.
Interior Minister Monika Lamperth urged had earlier police to "act decisively" against anyone expressing "unlawful and extremist opinions". The 26-year-old student leader of the neo-Nazi group behind the demonstration, Diana Bacsfi, was sentenced to ten days’ in jail this week on charges of disturbing the peace and "inciting public fear."
NAZI SALUTE
Bacsfi admits her group is inspired by Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szalasi and was reportedly arrested after "greeting" with a Nazi salute people protesting against. After the court hearing, Bacsfi told reporters that she considered herself a "political hostage", the English language Budapest Sun newspaper reported.
It comes amid a growing political debate in Hungary about Nazi manifestations in the post-Communist era, after President Ferenc Madl, citing constitutional concerns, vetoed one of Europe’s toughest legislations last year against hate speech which would have stipulated up to three years in prison for persons expressing extremist views.
Madl said Thursday, October 14, however, that he praised parliament for having unanimously adopted a motion condemning the Ferenc Szalasi-led wartime government.
"BLOODTHIRSTY ENEMY"
"The Ferenc Szalasi-led Arrow Cross national socialist movement was the most savage, harmful and bloodthirsty enemy of the rule of law based on the respect for democracy, universal human rights and civic values," read the motion, adopted Monday, October 11.
However Jewish organizations remain concerned about the level of anti Semitism in Hungary, where some 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust, after being deported to death camps across Europe by the government in Budapest.
Even politicians make jokes about Holocaust victims, reported Hungarian television Thursday, October 14. Duna Television showed pictures of a Socialist politician mocking victims while laying flowers in their honor in front of the "House of Terror" museum and complaining about the cold weather.
SOCIALIST ROW
After an unidentified person remarked to imagine how cold it must have been for people deported to the gas chambers of concentration camps, Socialist Party deputy Janos Zuschlag answered: "For them it was no longer cold by then," according to a transcript.
He later apologized and said he would withdraw from the race for party president, Duna Television reported. The Liberal junior governing coalition party, Alliance of Free Democrats, other politicians, Jewish groups and civic organizations have said they will take to the streets around the Museum of Terror to demonstrate on Friday, October 15, to demonstrate against the Arrow Cross regime and the neo-Nazis.
President Madl said Thursday, October 14, that he "bows his head in respect of the memory of the victims of the Arrow Cross times", and stressed that the "era that must never recur again", Hungarian radio reported.
