about anti Semitism within Hungarian right wing parties and groups with links to the previous administration.
Albright told reporters in Budapest she had discussed hatred toward Jewish people with Hungarian ex-Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who headed a rightist coalition government from 1998 till 2002.
She spoke amid revelations that Orban’s government likely knew of illegal oil deliveries from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to fund an anti-Semitic party. Hungary’s secret service is investigating reports that the Hungarian Interests Party received 4.7 million barrels of oil from Hussein’s regime, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tamas Toth told reporters.
Yet, Orban has denied being an anti-Semite or having made anti-Semitic statements, Albright said in statements published Friday by Hungarian media.
GENERAL CONCERN
But "there is a general concern among people in the United States about some nationalist or extremist views expressed by some members of Viktor Orban’s opposition Fidesz party and other groups," Albright stressed, after recent BosNewsLife and other news reports.
Anti Semitism is a sensitive issue for the former Secretary of State, who in 1997 discovered that two of her grand parents died in a concentration camp, most likely in Auschwitz.
There are worries "about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe," added Albright, who also met current Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy of the Socialist-Liberal government.
ORBAN SUPPORTERS
She recalled that Orban’s supporters were involved in the January 11 mass rally, which turned into an anti-Jewish manifestation with demonstrators shouting "we had enough" while an Israeli flag was burned and others were seen waving flags from the Nazi-era.
Speaker and far right commentator Istvan Lovas told the crowd that a "minority hates the Hungarian nation and Christianity." Organizers claimed the gathering was no more than a protest against Budapest based Tilos Radio, where an apparently drunk host suggested on Christmas Eve "to wipe out all Christians."
The shocked Israeli Embassy in Budapest told ANS earlier it did not understand why demonstrators accused Israel, as the Jewish state has nothing to do with the radio network. Far right groups have suggested however that Jewish people are controlling the media in Hungary.
NATIONALISM INCREASED
Analysts say anti-Semitism and nationalism have increased in Hungary since the collapse of Communism in 1989 and, unlike Germany, the country has not yet adequately dealt with its controversial past.
Hungary’s first ever Holocaust museum is only scheduled to open later this year, to commemorate the estimated 600,000 Hungarian Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps when Hungary supported Germany.
Before the museum’s opening, neo Nazi groups plan to honor Nazi and Arrow Cross soldiers who died in Budapest in battles against Soviet troops in 1944-45. Hungarian police gave permission for the February gathering, the Hungarian Magyar Hirlap newspaper reported Friday, January 30.
Several evangelical groups and churches, including the Agape church with thousands of supporters nation wide, are praying for Hungary and the Jewish people, amid concern about what they see as "a spiritual battle" in the post-Communist nation, ANS learned.
