annual National Holiday amid fears of police violence against its members and anti-government demonstrators.
An elder of the 1,000-strong ‘A Hazateres Temploma’, or ‘The Homecoming Church’, told BosNewsLife that the decision was made after Hungarian police forced Christians to stay within the church building for several hours on October 23 last year when they commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution against Soviet domination.
"About 50 Christians were forced to remain in the church by police blocking the entrance,while others attempting to reach our congregation [for the commemoration service] were prevented from doing so," said the 39-year old elder, Dr. Gyongyi Hegedus, whose father is bishop.
"Even my 75-year old father was initially not allowed to leave the building to conduct a worship service elsewhere in Budapest near the grave of Imre Nagy," the prime minister who led the 1956 Revolution, which was crushed by Soviet soldiers. She admitted there were police concerns about some family members, including her outspoken brother Reformed Pastor Lorant Hegedus, who was intially convicted but later acquited for publishing anti-Semitic statements as a prominent official of the far right Hungarian Justice and Life Party, MIEP.
CHURCH SERVICE
Hegedus said that unlike in October last year, her church was this time able to gather Thursday, March 15, to commemorate another Hungarian revolution — in 1848 against Austrian Habsburg rule — but stressed that members "remained concerned about possible police violence" during anti-government protests. "That’s why we wanted to invite international observers."
They included Reto Nause, secretary general of the Swiss Christian Peoples Party, Alain Terrenoire, president of the French section of the Pan European Union Movement, Herve Lavenir de Buffon, a former presidential adviser, and Kiss Boldizsar, President of the Swiss-Hungarian Civic Movement, according to a list obtained by BosNewsLife.
‘The Homecoming Church’ is part of the Hungarian Reformed Church, Hungary’s largest Protestant denomination. About 16 percent of Hungary’s population of roughly 10 million people cosider themselves Reformed or ‘Calvinist’, while over 50 percent of Hungarians are Catholics, according to official estimates.
While Hegedus’ congregation has officially no political affiliation, she admitted it was close to Fidesz, the largest rightist opposition party here. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany accused Fidesz this month of having ties with anti-Semitic groups, but Hegedus said the allegation was "to easy" to make.
"Ofcourse there are always hooligans and extremist people among demonstrators, but it is unfair to suggest that all of them are extremists," said Hegedus, who also works as a medical doctor.
JEWS CONCERNED
Representatives of the Jewish community however advised Jewish people this week to stay away from rallies demanding the resignation of the government on March 15. The protests are aimed at Prime Minister Gyurcsany as he admitted last year to lying about the economy to win re-election. After the ballot it became clear that Hungary had the highest budget deficit within the European Union, running at around 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 2006.
Demonstrators are also angry that former Communists are participating in the Socialist-led government, 17 years after Hungary introduced a multi party system following decades of Soviet rule when dissidents and active Christians and religious Jews were among those being persecuted.
The anger was evident early Thursday, March 15, when a military brash band in front of Hungary ’s gothic parliament building in Budapest desperately tried to outdo the protesters standing outside iron barricades. Prime Minister Gyurcsany inspecting a military guard and the Hungarian flag ceremony could clearly hear the slogans directed against him by the angry crowd.
Opposition parties boycotted the ceremony and even the Hungarian president stayed away, choosing instead to go on a private visit to neighboring Romania.
TENSE COMMEMORATIONS
Later thousands of protestors, many of them carrying Nazi-era flags, were seen at several rallies and at ceremonies. The Liberal Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky said in an emotional speech that he regretted to see flags representing a period when 600,000 Hungarian Jews were massacred in the Holocaust. Guards protected him with umbrella’s as protestors threw eggs and tomatoes at him. British author David Irving, who was recently released from an Austrian prison for denying the Holocaust, was also attending a MIEP rally.
Ahead of Thursday’s tense commemorations, authorities expressed concerns that anti-Semitic groups and extremists would mingle among the crowds. Fidesz urged its supporters therefore "not to bring totalitarian flags" to its rally, after the prime minister publicly accused it of having ties with anti-Semitic groups.
Police and secret service officials said they fear a repeat of an incident on October 23 last year, when violent far-right protestors fought with police during the 50th anniversary of the failed anti-Soviet Revolution. Hundreds of people were injured in these and other clashes.
One demonstrator and key organizer, Gyorgy Ekrem, who has been under house arrest, told BosNewsLife recently that he would not rule out a violent overthrow of the government. A recent attack with a machine gun on the headquarters of the police headquarters proved his point. Ekrem denied any involvement in the attack. Police late Wednesday, March 14, reportedly also discovered over 80 bottles for petrol bombs during a raid in a Budapest apartment.
Western diplomats told BosNewsLife the tensions show that Hungary ’s fragile young democracy still has to mature. They said they would anxiously watch how Hungarians will commemorate their National Holiday in a volatile political landscape.
