Neo-Nazi skinheads from Hungary, Germany, and other European countries lined up in a military-style formation inside a metal cordon built around Budapest’s Heroes Square and erected a wooden cross with the words "Blood and Virtue" written on it.
They commemorated an attempt by the fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross party on February 11, 1945, to break out Budapest’s Castle District, which was surrounded by Soviet troops. Hungary was a close ally of Nazi Germany during the war, when an estimated 600,000 Hungarian Jews were massacred.
Hundreds of people demonstrated against the event. They were seen putting their hands on their necks as "silent victims" when the neo-Nazis, wearing black leather coats and boots, sang the Hungarian anthem.
YOUNGSTERS DETAINED
Sunday’s Neo-nazi gathering came just days after police reportedly detained two youngsters, who admitted of desecrating Jewish tombs in south-western Hungary last week. Representatives of the Jewish community in the town of Kaposvar told police that anti-Semitic symbols were spray-painted on 24 tombstones in the local cemetery.
The perpetrators used silver-colored paint to spell out "our country is not for sale" as well as painting a swastika, an Arrow Cross and a Star of David, which was crossed out, news reports said. In addition the far-right paramilitary Magyar Garda, or Hungarian Garda, has held demonstrations in areas where many Gypsies, or Roma, are living.
Far rights groups have also supported anti-government demonstrations and there has been concern they are involved in several patrol bomb attacks against parliamentarians of the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party. On Saturday, February 9, Hungary’s Justice Minister Albert Takacs said unknown attackers threw petrol bombs into the houses of five Socialist Parliamentarians. Several other Socialist politicians reportedly received envelopes containing white powder in the post that turned out to be harmless.
National Police Chief Jozsef Bencze said police offers would provide personal protection as well as patrols of areas surrounding homes of threatened parliamentarians. "In the current situation all MPs are, thankfully, okay," Hungarian News Agency MTI quoted Bencze as saying. (With BosNewLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
