The rise of the far-right in Hungary

May 28, 2013 5:17 AM

"Jobbik is one of the most politically successful far-righ parties in Europe. The Hungarian party is anti-EU, anti-semitic and anti-roma,
and have thrived since the financial crisis." SLYT (Channel 4 report from Budapest, Hungary.)

Also on Vice: My Week with Hungary's Far Right

Previously about Hungary:
Roma in Hungary: A Hard Life
The Frightening Hungarian Crackdown
Hungarian Democracy Under Threat
posted by bdz (24 comments total)

I need to know how Jobbik feel about the USA before I can make up my mind about whether this is good or bad.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:25 AM on May 28, 2013 [4 favorites]

Just a few weeks ago the party leader said (again), that Jobbik is against the global capitalism and its three main representatives: the EU, the USA, and Israel.
posted by bdz at 5:36 AM on May 28, 2013

I was joking about the US's historical support for fascist regimes as long as they're pro-US and thought I was being overly obvious. Sorry.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:45 AM on May 28, 2013 [4 favorites]

... admired by those fed up with government corruption, derided by opponents as anti-Gypsy, anti-Semite, neo-Nazi homophobes

I guess it's always easiest to just apply the usual stereotypes and stop thinking about it.
posted by three blind mice at 5:49 AM on May 28, 2013

also from the article: The group's leader explained their political motivations: “There are two major problems. The problem within the country is the gypsy crime, and the external threat is the Jewish territorial expansion."

I guess some people will excuse anything right wingers do as undeserved stereotyping.
posted by stavrogin at 5:58 AM on May 28, 2013 [12 favorites]

I'm sure Jobbik would be very successful in screwing over Hungarians if they ever held real power.
posted by ersatz at 6:22 AM on May 28, 2013

But in three blind mice-land accommodating actual living, breathing fascists is a small price to pay for getting to neener-neener teh libruls.
posted by bardic at 6:23 AM on May 28, 2013

To quote one of the great people of the 20th Century: Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.
posted by Etrigan at 6:41 AM on May 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Someone I know is a Jobbik party member. It is my secret shame.

I get email forwards about how the Jews are undoing the work of Hungary because they all want to leave Israel and move to Hungary and enslave normal Hungarians. The body of party members are so insane that it astonishes me...and I've idly trolled Stormfront a couple of times in my youth.

The Roma and Jewish communities are actually likely to vote for Orban, because he will discriminate heavily against them but doesn't actually intend to allow for violent attacks against them. I keep telling people to leave.
posted by jaduncan at 6:43 AM on May 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I get email forwards about how the Jews are undoing the work of Hungary because they all want to leave Israel and move to Hungary and enslave normal Hungarians.

Speaking as the descendant of Hungarian Jews who left Hungary to flee persecution:

Hahahahahahahha no.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:48 AM on May 28, 2013 [16 favorites]

I guess it's always easiest to just apply the usual stereotypes and stop thinking about it.

Sure...but they also are anti-Jewish and anti-Gypsy homophobes. Seriously, I get emails from actual party members saying that the Gypsies and Jews should all be killed or expelled from Hungary.

More seriously, they are the bogeyman that makes Orban the relatively sane option. Orban with the media crushing, the judge sacking, the pushing for control of case allocation to ensure friendly judges, the driving out of foreign companies, the uniformed militia, a new constitution and a recent closure of a college for being a "Jewish den". That Orban. The sane option. That is all.

Hungarian politics is truly poisonous right now.
posted by jaduncan at 6:48 AM on May 28, 2013 [7 favorites]

Hahahahahahahha no.

You have almost precisely summarised my response to the first email. All that's missing is the "wait, you aren't sending me this as an example of insanity?"
posted by jaduncan at 6:50 AM on May 28, 2013

My extended family took a trip through Hungary a decade ago, exploring their roots and seeing how it changed in their perspective (the matriarch had left in her early twenties, in the run up to World War II). It was interesting hearing the stories comparing what things are in the relative "now" to what/how they were back in the day.

Also, exactly what Tomorrowful said.
posted by tilde at 6:50 AM on May 28, 2013

Mod note: Please assume good faith and do not single out other users, thank you.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 6:57 AM on May 28, 2013

I have a Hungarian friend here, in Berlin, and his conversations about these people are kind of terrifying. Academics (he says) are fleeing and things are basically kind of un-raveling. We did have a medium-sized chuckle about Szegedi though. But really only medium sized.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:06 AM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

The party describes itself as "a principled, conservative and radically patriotic Christian party"

Hm. Sounds like another political party I know.
posted by goethean at 7:27 AM on May 28, 2013 [6 favorites]

I asked a Hungarian mate what the Jobbik wanted, he replied "Slovakia and Transylvania". I found it funny to hear Transylvania used in modern speech, guess it's not so funny if one has to deal with the Jobbik day to day.
posted by Gratishades at 9:14 AM on May 28, 2013

I have a close friend who's Hungarian intellectual elite ancestors fled this sort of crazy 2 or 3 generations back. To Venezuela. Where they have now all been forced to leave for being, you know, intellectual elites. They're in the US now. Fingers crossed.
posted by kjs3 at 10:55 AM on May 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Are there any other European countries besides Hungary and Greece that have significant far-right party support?
posted by Apocryphon at 11:12 AM on May 28, 2013

Front National and Lega Nord are the big two I can think of. But Lega Nord is more complicated.
posted by Jehan at 12:15 PM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Would an immigrant walk into a conference of the Austrian Freedom Party, the Dutch Party for Freedom, the Danish People's Party, the True Finns or the Vlaams Belang? Questions, questions.
posted by ersatz at 12:57 PM on May 28, 2013

Would an immigrant walk into a conference of... the Vlaams Belang?

The Vlaams Belang has lost a bit of its electoral oomph as many of its former constituents have moved to support the NVA, the more "moderate" Flemish "regionalist"/nationalist party.

What's interesting (disturbing) is the move of the Vlaams Belang to reach out, albeit tentatively, to Jewish groups (there is a significant population in Antwerp) to fight against a common "enemy" -- Muslim immigrants and their descendants. This, from a party whose roots reach back to Flemish political figures who voluntarily joined the SS to fight "Bolshevism" (read: the Jews) during World War II.
posted by dhens at 1:42 PM on May 28, 2013

What's interesting (disturbing) is the move of the Vlaams Belang to reach out, albeit tentatively, to Jewish groups (there is a significant population in Antwerp) to fight against a common "enemy" -- Muslim immigrants and their descendants. This, from a party whose roots reach back to Flemish political figures who voluntarily joined the SS to fight "Bolshevism" (read: the Jews) during World War II.

Which does not seem that far from the alliance between pro-Israeli right-wing warhawks (think Orly Taitz, Melanie Phillips and the various neo-Huntingtonian “Eurabia”/“dhimmitude” conspiracy theorists going on about the Islamic threat to “our shared Judaeo-Christian heritage”) and Bircher/militia types who, a few decades earlier, would have been trotting out copies of Henry Ford's The International Jew and talking about Jewish-Communist plots against liberty.
posted by acb at 4:07 PM on May 28, 2013

Hungarian Jews protest naming Budapest street after anti-Semite
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:16 PM on May 31, 2013