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Fascism n Hungary

Th eoppositiono neoliberal lobalisationakes n he mainnation-

alist icorms. t s necessaryora government ithin moreor ess

democraticountryo explaino the nationhowandwhy theydare

to deny undamentalesourceso the needy' he Hungarian ov -

ernment's xplanationriminalisesnd racialiseshe conflict to

say hat all he peoplewh o needsocial

assistance re racially ifferentromus,

(racially nferior n the case of the

Roma).They saY they are never do

wel ls and lazy, benef i t dePendent

spongersor 'white trash'. Then theY

buildmoreprisons, et morepolice nd

keep he proletariat,he precariat nd

th eunderclassn heirplace s nferiors.

It squiteextraordinaryow muchof he

general esponse o the crisis, o the

gal lopinganomie and to sPreading

poverty is anti-plebeian Th e open

hatredagainsthe old ag e pensioners,

the unemployed nd social welfare

claimantss counterbalancedy hatred

of the ruling rderof capital s 'foreign'

.Western liberal crit icism of East

Europeanacism, enophobia nd neo-fascisms perceived s a

feint to subdue national' esistanceo rootlesscoSmopolitan

financecapitaland life destroying polit ical orrectness.The

strengtheningf heRight s not us ta reimaginingf quasi-fascist

bu talsoa responseo social ol lapse nddisintegration'heright

is promising rder,socialcohesion nd survival or th e middle

class, speciallyoryoungwhite,gentile, hristianamilies.

Wh y did somethingwe thought wa s alreadydead and buried

returnagain o frame he polit icalscene?

This art icle roposeso make a generalanalyses bouta very

worrying ituationppearingn Hungary ve r he astyears.Many

media hannel's l lover he Europe ignal,hat,since2007 here

wa sa fundamentalur n nt o hepolicy f he Hungariantate One

couldno t say anymore ha t his is left propaganda r even ef t

paranoia. here s no doubtnow that n Hungary he rightwing

playsa strong ole nto he polit ical cene'We witness he pres-

enceof he ascistsn the ParliamentWealsowitness uringhe

lastyearsattacks gainstminorities nd a verystrong ntisemitic

an d antiziganisticiscourse.n the last years here have been

more ha n18 attacks gainstRomahomeswhere6 peoplewere

killed.The conjecturesall on MaghiarGuard,a nationalist ara-

military ovement ut nonehas beenwatching nti lno w Withall

the media candal nd nternationaleactionhe rightwing s get-

t ingpowerful.t seems ha t t has he retaining al lof he massof

the population.he old resentmentsre backand he big rustra-

t ioncaused y the Treatyof Trianon s becoming, nc eagain,a

subject f discussion

As faras we know here s nota strong eaction gainsthe riseof

th e ascists y Hungarians.t is definitelyot at all our ntentiono

givea categoricalnsweracedwith hi ssituation, eithero try o

explaint or givea satisfactoryverview bout t. We can us t imit

ourselveso the researchwe have done and to try, ogetherwith

you,o understand

hy something e thoughtwa s already ead

an dburi-edeturnedo frame he polit icalcene...

At firstwe think hat the riseof the Hungarian ascistsnowadays

presents om e imilaritiesit hwhat60yearsagohappened he n

Hungary ecamea fasciststateallayedwith, Germany, nder

AdolfHitler, nd, taly, f Mussolini. ortunately,n the present it-

uationhere s no suchpossibilitiesutwe see t anyway s a very

alarming ign or he near uture.

We thinkas well hat behind he fascistsherearepoliticalorces

interestedn sustaininghem n order o keep he attention f th e

public pinion wa y ro m he realproblems.t s a verycomfortable

solutiono hear ha t hose esponsibleor

the economical isaster aused y the so

called ransition re the Romacriminals,

some very mystical ewishorganisation

an d of course he emancipatoryenden-

ciescoming ro m he West.Bu tout of the

arguments they use, unfortunately t

seems hat he speechof the fascistshas

a verystronghold o th e public.Have he

Hungarian ommon peoplegone into a

very deep sleep? There s no self-reflec-

tion. Whatcan generatesuch a powerful

ignorance nd mass hatred?Can some-

bodyexplainwhy,after he greyhistoryof

the ascistsn heWorldWar ,whenmore

than 10 percent fthe Hungarian opula-

t ionwa s murdered, eople re sti l lable o

trust he fascists?

Great Hungariandream state '

Hungary,n 1919went hrough he traumatic xperience f civil

wa randshortlivedCommunismegime f BelaKuhn, ollowed y

on eof white error. heTreaty fTrianon educedhe ol dkingdom

of Hungaryo neara quarter f its erritory nd dramaticallyut

bordersbetween ts population orcingabout 30 percentof the

Hungarian opulationnt o neighbouring ountries.Theoots of

Hungarianascismwere firmlyanchored o the collapse f th e

Austro Hungarian onarchy, it h ts disi l lusioned ilitary fficer

corps, nd he counter evolution. hi smilitary lass consistin

bothof careerofficers nd aristocraticamilies was entrusted ith

restoringHungary's reatness nd racialpurity.Startingn 1919

theyorganised everal acist ndantisemiticssociations'mong

which he most mportantwere OV E th eHungarian ssociatio

of national defence ), AwakeningHungarians, he lrredentis

Association,he Associationor TerritorialDefense, he Hungarian

Societyor the Defenseof RacialPurity,and he ChristianNational

Associaflons ecretgroup 'Resurrection'.he political ocialisa

tion of Hungarian outh ook an extreme orm in Levenfe youth

association), paramilitary roup egalized o train Hungaria

youth n military ffairs

The first NationalSocia/lsfParty, Nemzeti SocialistaPad was

founded 1928 and in 1933 fused with the National Socia/is

Agrarian nd WorkersParty.By he early1930s herewere n fact

four ascists arties xtoll inghe national ocialistdeology The

Nationat Socla/lsf Agrarian and Workers Party, the National

Socia/lsfWorkers Party led by Zoltan Boszormenyand the

NationalSociatist arty edby CountSandorFesteticsAftermeet-

in g Adolf Hitler n 193'l Boszormeny ublishedpropagand

extoll inghevirtues f national ocial ism.monghis avoreddea

were he returnof Hungary orders o theirpre-'l918 orms, he

formation f a 'healty' ungarian iddle lass,he imitationf he

sizeof arge andholdingo 500hectars,hedesignationf citizen

as 'fel low it izens',nd he restr ict ionf cit izenshipnl y o thosofArian acial tock. n he propagandaf 1930sBoszormeny as

referred o as the HungarianHitler The ascistspartiesprogra

closelyollowedhat of Hitler's racism ntisemitism ndmilitar

sationbu twith an added lavorcombining Hungarian xtrem

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formof nationalismnfusedwith Christianundamentalism.on efrom heseparties er eable o get enough otesduring he 1935national lectionso enterparliament. hey were however uc-cessfuln preparinghe entrance f FerencSalazi,he only ascistleaderwitha vision or worlddomination nder h e leadership fthe Hungarian eople...He had already n '1933published is'Plan or the construction f the HungarianSfafe'an ideologicalprogramallowedwo years aterby'Goal and Demands'. zalasiplanneda completemakeover f the Hungarian tate n threeyears ha twouldbe followed y a systemica llylanned conomy.

In Goaland Demands, e proposedhe expulsion f allJews romHungary nd he creation f lhe HungarianUnitedLands,a looseconfederationf allpre-19'18erritories.n 1935Szalasiormed isownPartyof National f// togetherwithSandorCsia,a fellow as-cist.Szalasiaunched is Hungarist ovementn 1936basedonnationallsm, ysticArian,Turanian acismcombinedwith anti-semitism, hristianundamentalism,nd he eadership rinciple.It s clear hathis ealpreoccupationaswith heplaceof Hungaryin the world... ut hatdid notmeanHungary s shewas, but hegreatHungarian reamstatewith he magyars s th e domlnan[race eadinghe others.

From ost elections o organi sing or total war and collabora-tion on Holocaust

Szalasi nd his ellowextreme ationalist ombos wh obecameprim-ministern 1932 wereno tgreat riends. zalasi id not rustGombos ullyand decided ot o run or a seatwith hishelpdur-in g the'1935 elections.On e year later at the local elections,Szalasi nd other asc istseaderswere all defeated t the oolls.Th enewgovernment as able o mounta successful,ut notveryefflcient ttackon the extreme ightwhosemain movementswereall disbanded. oneof the leaders, owever, eceivedai l sen-tences. utby he allof 1937a newan dmoreextremeeadershipappearedwith Laslo Endreand KalamanHubany.With hem Szalasi ormedanotherparty: he NationalSocia/lst arfirTheirslo-gan was: God, Homeland,Nat ion andHungarianness.ndresuccessfully

ount-ed a political ampaign nd in 1938 wa selected o the postof countydeputygover-nor of Pestcountry. t this ime Hungary'sGerman minoritiesoined Szalasimove-ment: heir eaderFerencRothenbecameSzalasi oreignpolicy advisor.When th eHungarianNationalSocla/isfParfywas ille-galised, ne w action ormed; yAugust treappeared s the Arrow CrossHungaristMovement, partysupported y the smallerbut equally xtremeNational ront.

Szalasi laimedhathi sHungaristde awa sno tanti-Semiticuta-Semitic: imply isregardinghe Jewishpeople.He held he viewthatHungary nd Hungarians ereespecially el lsituatedo be aleadingac e n the world. n order o achievehis,al l colonial ndimperial ist icreatpowers th e <Judeo-plutocracies"f England,Franceand U.S.Aan d the SovietUnion had to b e dissolved.Instead,he Latin,German, lavic,slamic nd Hungarist oliticalnations hould e allowedo form heirow n Lebensraum'.y helate1930she ascists ereopenly rganisingallies ndpublish-ing pamphlets nd newspapers,n early 1939 hey plannedabombing f the Jewish ynagogue n DohayStreet n Budapest.The militarizationf Hungarywent hand n hand with the anti-Jewish aw of 1 938.On the 2 of April he Daranyigovernmentannouncedts Gyorprograma fiveyear o rebuildHungary's i l-i taryhardware nd communicationsand he sameday he firstJewishLawwent nto effect.The nd of 1 938sawthe flrstooenHungaristal ly,with en of thousandsmarching n the streets fBudapest.Under his kind of pressure he TelekigovernmentlegalisedheArrowCrossparty.During he May 1939parliamen-tary elections, heArrow Crossand anothernational ocialist ar-

t ieswereable o send ortyeightMP s o the parliament.his lg-ure meant hataltogether 00,000peopleacross he country otedfor he ascists.n Budapest ndPestCountry lone,more ha n40percentof votersopted or Arrow Crossand other ascists andi-dates.At the end of '1940he leadersof various ascists actionsagreed o uniteand form a singleArrow CrossParty o representthe Hungarian atio nalSocialism. ut the lmredygovernment'sshift toward Germanycreated a powerfulpositionagainst heArrowCross y marginalisinghe eaders.Manywere ailedwhileotherswere orced o flee o Germany

However, zalasi nd and his closest l l iesdid not remain uiet:in 1943 hey planned military oup.By the fall of the year, heGermanmili tary ighcommand asconvincedhat he conserva-t ive government f MiklosKallay, nstalledn powerby regentHortyand not sympathetico Nazism,wa s incompetentnd hatmilitary ccupationf he countrywas nevitable. uring he sum-mer of 194 1almost16,000 ews were deportedo Galicia ndmassacredn KammeneckPodolsky.hiswa s he irstmassacreof the Holocausto be egitimatedy he Hungarianeadership.twas fallowedby the second massacre,which took place inJanuary 942inDelvideka region ccupied y he Hungarian il -itary and police.They murderednearly 3,500 people mostlyJewish nd Roma.

On '1 9March1944,Hungarywas occupied y th e Germans. l lthe national ocialisteaders hohad mmigratedo Germany owreturnedand activelyorganised or total war in Hungary,eventhough he German uppet overnmentf Sztojany idno t ncludeany Arrow Cross members. In April, Edmund Veesenmayer,Hungary'sNazi governormeet Szalasi for the f i rst t ime.Veesenmayer asable o convince dmiralHorty o meetSzalasiin May,a meeting hat sealedHungary'sate during he tragicremainingmonthsof the year.Al l the fascistan d paramilitary

groupswere unitedunderMOVE, ncludingthe semi secret Assocration f Fightersofthe Eastern Front (KABAZ ) and theTuranian ightersAssociation.When on 15

October1944,Hortyannounced cease-fire, the Arrow Cross units armed by thegermans mounted a successfulmilitarycoupd'etat.n he ateOktober 944Szalasiissued his Program for NationalReconstruction.n he springand earlysum-mer, Eichmann nd his SonderkommandodeportedHungarian ews and Roma romthe provinceso Auschwitz. he deportationof almosthalf-million eoplewas activelyhelped by HungarianClerks, policemen,and soldiers.

Naziskinheadsas the new avantguard f the ,, vict imsof thehistory"

After World War 2 and the establishment f state socialism, as-cists deaspersisted mongHungarian ilitary nd police ff icersin expatriate ommunities ll over he world.Many publicationsand journalswere published xtolling he virtuesof Hungarianracialpurity nd excusingHungary'sole n the Holocaust. eoNazisand neofascitsdeasbegan o appear n Hungary fter hefallof he communismn 1989.Skinhead roups nd neonazi lo-gansha d n factalready ppearedn the smallan dmarginaloc kmusic subculture nder he communist egime n early 1980s

already. fter1990new eaders nd namesappeared, ndWorldWa r 2 insignias nd songs began o make the roundsagain.Antisemitic, ntiziganisticnd extremenationalist ichetoric lsoreappeared, ithswastikas ndactsof vandalismn Jewish eme-teriesand synagogues cross he country. l bertSzabo, svanGyorkosand GeorgyEkremKemal ormed he far rightHungarianWelfareAssociation,ut the partywas illegalised,orcing ts deo-logues o remain ilentor to leaveHungary. haracteristicf the

E

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1990swas a demons trationy nationalistkinhead roup outh nthe Castledistrict f Budapesto commemorate zalasis attemotto breakout fromthe sovietattackon Budapest. he alternativesubculturemilieustart o rise again after 2000, with skinheadnationalist roupsorganising hite power demonstrationsndwhiteChristmas oncerts.

Th eTreaty f Trianon hich ef t1920'sHungary ithout big partof erritory ndpopulations againon he op of discussionor ightand extreme ight partiesafter 2000. Did it really epresenttragedy or he Hungarians? e cannot aymoreabout hat.Bu twe can realise nto he extreme ight speech rom the last yearsthat his subject s used as fetish. t is not reallyan issue f theTreaty asan unfair greement ut more t representsn nstancefo rwh y th eHungarianeople' re he victims f history. s a con-sequence,here s a policyof hate which establishesensionsbetweenHungarians nd the neighbour eoplemosflybetweenHungariansnd Slavsand Romanians nd nsideHungary ten-sionbetween ungariansnd minorities. utmore han hat s aninstancehat makes he Hungarianso feel entifled o ask fo rassertions.

ls History repeating tself?

On this point he roleof the rightextreme,with heirprogram f

reestablishingheol d bordersgivesHungarianopula-

t ion the feel ingthat they ca nagain ecome neof the dominatingnations f Europe.It is a verypervert-ed argumentwhich can makesense o any per-so n wh o is notpreparedor multi-

cul tural ism r toreceivehe changes f th e last 20 years ro m he position f th eeconomicalnd moral ai lure.On he otherhand t s right hat hetransitiono the marketeconomyhas fai ledand after20 yearsHungarys embroiledn poverty nd a search or dentity, ssault-ed by he multinationa loncerns nd rotten y he corruption

While ndustry ndagriculture er ecollapsingthedominant olit-ical orcessaid heywereabout o transformHungary ntoa finan-cial servicescentre or the world .After he total collapseof theearly1990 some oreign nvestment rrivedan d ,cheap abourbeing opiously vailable.herewa s someconstructioner ean dthere Bu t he buy -outswere mosfly or liquidating ompetitorsand clearing onsumermarkets or the multinationalsHowever,

as workersost heir obs ,these onsumermarkets aturally entup nto hi nai r Bynow he multinationa lsre packing p and eav-ing On he whole t was still he state hatsomehowried o pro-vide fo r the increasingnumber of people left without anyresources. ungaryhas many more pensionershan gainfullyemployed eople n the privatesector Livingstandards aveplummeted,working hours have got longer for those st i l lemployed, nd unemployments everywhere. he dole is onlyvalid or six months Manypeople re goinghungry nd he yarenot used o it. In the 1970san d 1980sHungarywa s prosperouscomparedo the restof the region,especia llyn the i970s whentherewere ising iving tandards. l l his s collapsing.

Th e political lass s a bunchof rascals nterestedn theirown

prosperity.Hungary s for sale. Thats why a program ike ,TheRadicalChange' f theJobbik themovementor a betterHungary,extreme ightparty epresentedro mma y2010with 17percentnparliament)ounds o many ike h e onlymoralsolution. he eftspectrum s compromised fter 2006. FerencGyuricsany,he

prime minister rom 2Q04 o 2006 admitted hat hi s previousadministrationad lied about mportant conomicnformationnorder o assure he reelection.With he costsof ransition pirallingand he act hat ef tpolit iciansf mportant osit ion er ewillingomisinformhepublic pinion n a massive cale with erious on -sequencesor the entirecountry),Conservativesnd extremer ight par i ies consol idatedheir posi t ion n Hungar ianandEuropean arliaments.

It seems hat h e situation reatedn he astyears s similaro hesituationf he 1920swhen he Conservativespened p he pos-sibility or the rightextreme o accede o the power. n iactFidez,the nonconservative arty, s workinghand in hand with Jobbik.The speech f he right s also he sameas it was n the 1920s.|presentshe Hungarian eopleas victimsof History. larminglthe discourse f he astyearsha sbecome penly ntisemiticndantiziganistic.he polit icalprogramof Jobbik speaks direcflyabout ( gypsy roblem aused y gypsy riminality"nd makesaproposal rogramor he ntegrationf he Romacommunity.he1920s ascist tereotypesre beingusedagainby Jobbik Romadon'twork becausehey don'twant o (and his s intolerable...theyare antisocial lements ho mustconformo thewishof theHungariantatebecause obodywants o pa yand o sustainheirlaziness nd criminality. om aar e presented s terrorelementsthat endangerhe si lence nd orderof Hungarian ociety.obbik

also presents heRoma <criminalityas having connec-t ion o polit icalrimi-nal i ty and Jewishconspiratorial api-tal ists.

ln August 2OO7aparamilitary rgani-sation Magyar Gardwa s ounded.GaborVorna, ecognisablas one of the headsof the rightsextrem-

ists from Jobbik,was amongst he foundersof this paramilitarorganisation.Manyommentatorsay hat hisgroup s responsi-bl e or he attacks gainstRoma amiliesn Hungary nd even nTransylvania.noff icialoices ay here s no doubt hat heyar eprotected y thepolice.Due o the political ressureMagiarGuardwa s dissolvedn 2008.Shortly fter t was reorganisednder hecover of lhe MaghiarGuard Foundationolficiallyengaged n cul-turaland national uilding ctivities. e can sa y his s us tanoth-er strategy hichkeeps hem presentn the polit icalcene.Whatcanwe expect ro m hem?Thatbeautiful udapest ecame citywhere he fascists re marching gain, reely, ustained y th estateand by thegoodcit izens'.

In ou rresearch e were ookingor resistance roups nd peopleinierested o f ight against the r ight extreme in Hungary.Unfortunatelyhe feedbackwas verysmallconsideringhe seri-ousnessof the situation The antifascist roup rom Budapestseems o be verysmalland solatedWe have ried o get n con-tactwith hem but untilno w herewa s no answer ro m heirside.Wewillcontinue ur research nd we are ready o help or build-ing a solidcountermovement ecausewe considerhe situationin Hungary ritical. e have o act Wewillcontinueo workonourmaterialsan d interviewsas well as our call for solidarity.Fortunatelyhereexists lo tof people utside ungary hichareready o ge tactive On egreatexamples from hequeer cene nB.We are thankfully hat they accepted o give us an interviewwhichwe publish s a followupmaterial.We think ha t heirwork

is really reatan dshould e ollowed y othergroups nd ndivid-ualswh o don'twant o be passiven a time whenHungarys onthe way to becameagaina fasciststate