Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Jobbik A Parliamentary Platform for Jew-Hatred

The Jobbik Movement for a Better Hungary is no stranger to the most obscene forms of antiJewish rhetoric regularly expressed by its large representation in the Hungarian Parliament.
The party currently hold 47 seats in the Hungarian Parliament having received more than 12
percent of the vote in national elections in 2010.
In April this year, Jobbik MP Barath Zsolt alleged a cover-up of an infamous late 19th century
blood libel in Tiszaeszlr during a parliamentary debate. Zsolt directly accused jews of killing
a girl in the town and blamed external pressure on the judge for the cover-up.
Just days later, fellow Jobbik MP Balasz Lenhard again related to the Tiszaeszlr blood libel
in parliament, saying if Jews are being accused, its forbidden to talk about it.. Lenhards
microphone was turned off by the Speaker.
Similarly, this weeks statements by Marton Gyngysi are nothing new from the Jobbik
Foreign Affairs spokesman.
Gyngysi questioned the number of Hungarian Holocaust victims, which he described as a
hype, adding that Jews arent welcome here.
And during a parliamentary debate on the national budget, Jobbik MP Tamas Gaudi-Nagy
referred to payments demanded of Hungary through the Paris peace treaty with the words: "I
didnt know that Jews have been at war with our compatriots in World War II, and I did not
know that there had been a war with Israel, because Israel didnt exist back then."
Gaudi-Nagy is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and a
member of its committee on legal affairs and human rights.
But Jobbik also has presence in the European Parliament where it is the third largest block
from Hungary with three MEPs, having attained almost 15 percent of the vote in elections to
the European parliament in 2009.