Anyone following the national press may have read about István Kamarás in many different contexts. He is the chairman of the Opre Roma-Gypsy Democratic People’s Party, a former member of Jobbik, and was also involved in the organization of the first inauguration of the Hungarian Guard in August 2007. On Friday evening of last week, he gave a lecture on the Roma Holocaust at the Hunyadi Square synagogue of Mazsihisz.
According to the invitation on Facebook, Kamarás was to give a lecture before the Friday evening service welcoming the Sabbath, although not much is known about the details.
In 2017, Magyar Nemzet reported that Kamarás, with the „Gypsy Democratic People’s Party” he founded, wanted to see the creation of independent Gypsy provinces in four counties in northeastern Hungary — Borsod, Heves, Nógrád and Szabolcs. At the time, Kamarás and his allies believed that the corruption of the Roma and non-Roma elites in the country and the changed ethnic relations justified the autonomy of the region.
In 2011, origo.hu reported that Kamarás was a member of Jobbik for many years, then emigrated to Canada in 2011. At the time, it was also suggested that Kamarás was senior advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, as he was the chairman of the Roma Workshop of the Barankovics Foundation, the KDNP’s party foundation, and for a long time a regular speaker at talks organized by the government for Roma intellectuals.
KDNP, however, strongly denied that Kamarás was an advisor to the deputy prime minister and after it was revealed that Kamarás was a Jobbik member, the party severed all ties with him.
Kamarás’ Jobbik membership lasted until May 2011, Gábor Szabó, Jobbik’s party director, told origo.hu at the time. According to Szabó, however, he had not been active in the organization since 2007 and his party membership was terminated in May 2011 precisely because a membership audit revealed that he had not paid his membership fee.
However, before his departure in 2007, Kamarás was very active in the party life, and according to Gábor Szabó, he was already a leading figure in the Albertirsa community before 2003, when Jobbik was still a youth movement; later he also contributed to the transformation of Jobbik into a party, and from 2004 he became the leader of the Albertirsa organization.
„A very patriotic, right-wing Hungarian young man of Gypsy origin, who consciously called himself a Gypsy and not a Roma, and apart from whom there was not then and has not since been another member of Jobbik of Gypsy origin.”
– the party director told origo.hu in 2011 about Kamarás, who said that they had a good relationship in the past. According to Szabó, Kamarás quickly stood out from the community with his learning and outstanding organizational skills, but after the party was formed, he only ran the Albertirsa group for 1-2 years, later retiring and remaining only a „field” member of the Pest County organization of the party.
According to Szabó, Kamarás was still involved in the organization of the first inauguration of the Hungarian Guard at the end of August 2007, but after that he gradually distanced himself from the party and repeatedly indicated that he did not agree with Jobbik’s policy of highlighting Roma crime.
