As our paper has repeatedly reported, the list of opposition politicians going into the pre-election is constantly evolving, and there are a number of controversial figures among the nominations, particularly from the far-right Jobbik party. The opposition, left-liberal parties are lining up behind antisemitic and racist candidates, a non-exhaustive list of which is provided below.
From the Jews’ biological weapon to DK’s miracle weapon
In the 3rd constituency of Veszprém County, DK is backing the right-wing Rig Lajos, Klára Dobrev herself informed her followers on Facebook, accompanied by a picture.
You may recall, Rig had previously posted an article stating that Gypsies were used by Jews as biological weapons.
A supporter of key player in Jewish deportations is also backed by the left
DK also stood behind György Szilágyi, a right-wing man who considered the Simon Wiesenthal Institute a “risk to national security,” and Klára Dobrev, who never seems to be at fault on this front, again posted about this.
As our paper wrote earlier, Szilágyi, the vice-president of Jobbik, proposed a ban on the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 2013, which he called an “anti-Hungarian organization.”
Szilágyi’s problem with the center was that it condemned a group of Hungarian football ultras who hung a banner at a game honoring László Csatáry. Csatáry played a serious role as a police officer in the 1944 deportations of the Jews of Kassa (Košice) to the death camps.
Szilágyi was previously backed by LMP in the opposition pre-election.
He was still calling Israel an “aggressor” just last year, but now he is definitely a democrat
It is almost no surprise that Dobrev announced that in the opposition pre-election for the 3rd constituency of Pest County, she is supporting Jobbik member Gábor Pál, who previously also supported Márton Gyöngyösi’s list of Jewish parliamentarians and did not consider László Csatáry a war criminal.
In addition, as a press chief of Jobbik, news items like the one below and similar are attached to his name:
„Gábor Pál, the press chief of Jobbik, announced on Tuesday afternoon that he will hold a press conference on Wednesday at 3 p.m. entitled The Anti-Zionist Group of Parliament, including Member of Parliament Hegedűs Lorántné, a Parliament clerk, and Member of Parliament Előd Novák, vice-president of Jobbik, in the Parliament’s press room.”
Last January, he also commented on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s support for Donald Trump and Israel:
„Why should Hungary clearly side with a pro-war, provocateur, a crazy leader of the great power and aggressor in the Middle East?”
Gyöngyösi and more whitewashing of antisemitism
Jobbik politician Koloman Brenner is being supported by both Momentum and LMP in Győr-Moson-Sopron County’s 4th constituency.
In an interview in May of this year, Brenner defended Márton Gyöngyösi’s famous Jewish list speech: According to him, Gyöngyösi is an acceptable politician because he said „very many times and in all media” that his question was raised „in connection with the issue of national security.” It was “an unfortunate speech many years ago,” for which he “apologized several times,” and it thus “is in no way a cause for division in the current situation.”
As he reiterated, Gyöngyösi only sought to inquire about those who held more than one citizenship, solely from the point of view of national security, that they not be allowed to be a member of the senate or congress, something he noted also exists in America.
This is not the first time Brenner has whitewashed Jobbik’s previous antisemitism.
He said last October that Jobbik is no longer an antisemitic party, explaining their former manifestations as „the immune reaction of Hungarian society.”
According to TEV’s statement at the time, „the confusing and tangled statement is highly misleading and cynical and highlights Jobbik’s true ambiguity.” Namely, according to TEV, Brenner “makes an insulting statement, slipped in when he refers to the party’s previous antisemitism ‘as an immune reaction of Hungarian society’. The phrase ‘immune reaction of Hungarian society’ assumes that Judaism is some kind of virus or pathogen to which Hungarian society had to respond.”
Even an Arrow Cross memorial event is okay
Jobbik’s János Stummer, is being supported by Momentum in the 1st district of Békés County in the opposition pre-election, announced András Fekete-Győr, the chairman of Momentum, at the beginning of May.
Stummer’s name may be familiar to readers from the fact that in 2013 his name was included in the scandal that affected several right-wing politicians and which erupted in connection with the ELTE BTK Student Self-Government (HÖK). As it turned out, the HÖK leadership classified students based on, among other things, appearance and origin, such as whether they were “Jewish.”
According to a 2013 ATV article, Stummer was one of the leaders of the HÖK at the time in question.
According to a 2016 article in Alfahír and a 2013 article in Barikád magazine, Stummer also took part with other right-wing politicians, such as Dániel Z. Kárpát and his predecessor Előd Novák, in the Kitörés Memorial Tour, which commemorates the Arrow Cross and Nazi German defenders in Budapest who tried to break out of the Soviet siege in 1945.
An admirer of a neo-Nazi group is also a suitable candidate
Ágnes Kunhalmi, co-chair of the MSZP, announced in a Facebook post at the beginning of May that her party, together with the Dialogue for Hungary party, would support Jobbik’s Gergely Kálló in the 4th constituency of Fejér County.
In December 2018, as Jobbik’s IT president, Kálló wrote a letter to the Betyársereg (“Outlaw’s Army”) neo-Nazi group, which is still available on the organization’s website. In it he said,
„As I said, our members and my immediate environment pay tribute to you with great respect, and we will do everything we can to ensure that no one can generate tension between us.”
The candidate in Borsod has a past full of antisemitic statements
Jobbik will run László Bíró yet again in the 6th constituency of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County. The news was announced on the Facebook page of Jakab Péter, the party’s president and prime ministerial candidate.
Bíró already competed in the district once in 2020, when Zsófia Koncz of Fidesz beat him. This was clearly due to the fact that Bíró, among other things, called
the capital “Judapest” and Israeli tourists “lice slides” (sic!) on his social media page.
Nevertheless, Jobbik will continue with the same candidate who already failed once.
The case is so embarrassing that Mazishisz President András Heisler, who does not otherwise criticize candidates in the opposition coalition, also spoke about it.
Although left-wing parties have not yet stood behind Biró, 444.hu notes that if Biró wins the opposition pre-election, left-wing parties will also have to support him strongly next year.
Summary
Left-wing opposition parties — including DK, MSZP, LMP, Dialogue and Momentum — are all supporting candidates with an unacceptable antisemitic and/or racist background in opposition pre-elections.
The proposed list of nominees includes those who have displayed antisemitism in all ways possible:
- Calling Jews „lice slides” (in reference to Orthodox Jews’ payot)
- Reference to the Gypsies as the „biological weapon” of the Jews
- Proposal to ban the Simon Wiesenthal Institute over its condemnation of honoring László Csatáry
- Calling Israel an „aggressor” and convening an „anti-Zionist” press conference
- Whitewashing the Jewish list speech of Márton Gyöngyösi and referring to antisemitism as an „immune reaction”
- Participation in a Kitörés tour to commemorate the Arrow Cross
- An expression of respect for the neo-Nazi Betyársereg group
Moreover, the above scandals did not all take place many years ago. Kálló wrote his letter in 2018, Bíró’s statements were in 2019, and Pál called Israel an aggressor just last year.
And Brenner whitewashed Márton Gyöngyös’s Jewish list speech in May of this year.
