Fascist Militia Week in Budapest!

The end of summer seems to push the tenor of Hungarian political life from the sublime to the ridiculous. Last year's uborka szezon ("cucumber season" - the summer doldrums when all the news is about vegetables ripening) ended abruptly with a right wing riot at the Hungarian State TV building, which led to the anti-government riots in October 2006. Since the fall of 2006, the right wing has been nursing its wounds complaining about police violence and a nice paramilitary was a great way to puff up one's breast and seem threatening. Violence is not really a Hungarian characteristic - it takes too much organization to get a crowd to put itself at risk. On the other hand, hate speech, or specifically, hateful symbolism, is very much a part of Hungarian political discourse. The latest manifestation of hate symbolism (disguised, of course, as tender love of the Motherland) was the dedication ceremonies of a new Hungarian paramilitary group, the Magyar Gárda, affiliated to the Jobbik Party. The Jobbik (the name comes from the Hungarian word jobb 'right' but puns out to mean "better") are the successor party to the aging nationalist, anti-Semitic MIEP party of Istvan Csurka. Originally formed a few years ago as a younger, more presentable forum for right wing sympathizers, the Jobbik party quickly degenerated into a stridently anti-Semitic party prone to the Hungarian tradition of political provokacio - provocative acts in the burn down the Reichstag and blame the Jews tradition. This week's formation of uniformed militias was just another manifestation of the use of hate symbols to gain media attention. Hungary is in the EU now, and it isn't the done thing for political parties to form party militias in the EU. We have seen militias before - the Communist Workers Guard, last seen taking pot shots at East Germans crossing the border into Austria in 1989, as well as the Arrow Cross in 1944. The modern Militias prefer to adopt the symbols of the latter group. Of course, the Socialist coalition Hungarian government, led by Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, loudly condemned the militias, while recognizing that they do have a legal right to form organizations. The opposition FIDESZ Party, however, parroted their line - originally used to defend the red-striped Árpád flags used by the October 2006 rioters - that there was nothing wrong in patriotic Hungarians wishing to defend their nation and using a flag that is associated with both the fascist Arrow Cross and the rise of neo-nazi Hungarist skinhead movement in the early 1990s. Originally, the Magyar Gárda were to wear a uniform of black shirts reminiscent of the Arrow Cross, an idea that Jobbik leader Gábor Vona said was "exactly what I liked about it." In the end, however, the black shirts were dropped... [photos from index.hu]On the other hand, the National Guard Brigade of Nyiregyháza was on hand with more fascist fashions... And the pseudo-legitimacy was furthered by the presence of Catholic and Protestant clergy blessing the event. The Hungarian Spectrum, a new English language source for an erudite and non partisan take on Hungarian news and society wrote:“The appearance of three members of the clergy raised quite a few eyebrows. A Catholic priest, a Lutheran pastor, and a Hungarian Reformed minister blessed the flag of the guard. The MSZP immediately demanded to know what these three churches have to do with a clearly neo-Nazi organization. The Catholic and Hungarian Reformed churches claimed ignorance. The priest and and the minister acted on their own. They didn't know anything about their plans. The Lutherans couldn't be reached. Legitimacy is what the game is all about. Viktor “The Man Who Would Be King” Orbán has been working maniacally to get himself appointed Prime Minister ever since he lost a second round of elections to Gyurcsany last year, and his main tactic has been to claim that local mayoral elections, street demonstrations, and forced referendums all proclaim the "illegitimate" nature of the present (elected) Hungarian government. FIDESZ leader Viktor Orbán was drinking deeply of the Kool Aid when he went on to blame PM Gyurcsány for inspiring the formation of fascistoid paramilitary units. It is well known that the Jobbik operate hand in hand with FIDESZ towards a politically unified right wing in Hungary. The Jobbik express the extremist, irredentist, and anti-Semitic rhetoric that resonates so well with the masses of dissatisfied, yet politically autistic Hungarians who identify liberal intellectuals (represented by the Socialist coalition partners SZDSZ, as well as just about anybody with a beard and a newspaper subscription) with an evil, international Jewish-Bolshevik-Capitalist conspiracy. The fact is we all know there are lots of right wing nutcases sitting on the tram next to us in Hungary, but they are in the minority. Yet the right wing knows the power of the accusation of “Anti-semitism” and in the great Hungarian spirit of political provocation plays the Jew baiting game for all it is worth in order to respond with “How dare you call us anti-semites! Why, there is a Jewish person in FIDESZ! How can we possibly be anti-Semitic?” But in Hungarian, language is always encoded and the meaning gets across to the political base. By declaring symbols like the red-striped flag and the arrow cross uniform national symbols of Hungary, the right can accuse those opposed to these symbols as "anti-Hungarian." Then FIDESZ spokemen get out and defend the legal mechanics of such symbolism, justifying it as a form of "free speech" which would only be opposed by those without "national feelings." The result is that a small percentage of the extreme right wing – acting with the tacit agreement of the center right - get to smear the majority of Hungarians with the uneasy feeling that “all Hungarians” are being accused of anti-Semitism. In fact, a very small percentage of the Hungarian voting public are anti-semitic. Creating this "unease" is to control the terms of debate, and to control the media's attention. If you make political hay from the unease, you have thrown oil on the fire itself. And the leader of FIDESZ should take a long hard look in the mirror the next time he blows off that accusation.

Getting Prepped for March 15th

Today we had tarhonyas hus, meat stew cooked with small pasta bits called tarhonya. Tarhonya may well be one of my favorite foods. Tarhonya is one of the oldest food types in Hungarian culture, going back to the horse-on-the-steppes days in the 8th century. Even today, tarhana is considered the national dish of Tatarstan, and in Istanbul you can get tarhana soup at any supermarket. I was going to write something about the political atmosphere in Hungary, but just researching the topic made me frustrated… we have another major Hungarian national holiday coming up on March 15th, and the right wing opposition groups that made such a mess of Budapest during last October’s riots are prepping up for another day of demonstrations against the Socialist-led government. It’s not that I don’t find Hungary’s right wing less than amusing. Hungary’s right wing leads the European pack when it comes to getting crazed, deluded nationalist football hooligans, Scythian historical reanactors, and angry old ladies out into the street…

Here we see somebody dressed as a Hun being stymied in his attempt to negotiate a Budapest metro ticket machine. This was on the day of a recent FIDESZ demonstration in front of the Terror House Museum. The idea that Hungarians are descended from noble Scythians is quite popular on the Hungarian right, dovetailing nicely with similarly odd wingnut theories such as the persistant claim that Hungarians are descended from the Sumerians... and that Jesus himself was therefore Hungarian. I could not possibly make this stuff up myself...Is the radical Hungarian right led by charismatic leaders? Or just pitiful old nutjobs? The leader of the Kossuth Square demonstrators – who has just been given permission to hold a peaceful demonstration near the Parliament again – is known for carrying his personal totem, a plastic toy cow on a stick with dinosaur glued to it. This is not somebody who would easily find employment in a kindergarten. It isn’t just the right wing nutcases that are getting worked up. This week the Budapest Jewish community leader (OK, the Neolog community on Sip utca…) Peter Feldamjer gave an interview to Israeli radio urging Hungary’s Jews to leave the country on March 15th if they wanted a peaceful day. Now, not many of us get Israeli radio in Hungary, but that’s beside the point. Feldmajer’s statement puts to rest the idea that Jews are smarter than other people. A lot of the resentment comes from FIDESZ and Viktor Orban recently defending the use of the red-striped Arpad Flag by contemporary right wing demonstrators. The Arpad flag is essentially identified with the Arrow Cross terror that gripped Hungary towards the end of World War Two. It’s rather like marching around with a swatstika. FIDESZ contends that the Arpad flag is a legitimate symbol of Hungary, since it was used in the middle ages and during the Rakoczi rebellion in the early 1700s, which is like pointing out that swastikas were used before the Nazis by Hindu temple designers and Inca weavers. Yes, there has been a lot of open anti Semitism on the right lately – because that’s what the right wing does in Hungary. Blaming invisible conspiracies of super-intelligent Semites for everything rings resonant on the right, because the communists wouldn’t let Hungarians use anti-Semitic terminology in public discourse. Therefore, with the commies gone, smearing Jews is a taste of freedom for the radical rightists. Except that we are talking about less than ten percent of the Hungarian people. Really. They are a loud and annoying radical right wing ten percent, but it isn’t like we are in Berlin in 1939 or Kishenev in 1906. We have a week until the big demos. Personally, I don't know what is going to happen, but I am not dropping my knishes and heading for the hills anytime soon.

Screaming in the Streets... Redux

Sorry for the slow posting... it takes a while to acclimatize my mind to the daily absurdities of life back in Hungary. Apparently Hungary's fractured and fractious right wing is at it again. The wingnuts have decided to stir the political pot again this March, and started early with some demonstrations at the Hungarian parliament this week. (Images from Index.hu)The cause this week is the cordon fence erected around the Parliament at Kossuth square after last October's messy and violent anti-government demonstrations. Apparently, Pretender to the Throne of Hungary and former prime minister Viktor Orban - faced with splits in his own FIDESZ party and the possible rise of rival right wing political parties - decided to take the cordon fence down himself. Here we go for our weekly right wing populist putsch attempt!Of course, removing police barriers isn't exactly legal, even for ex-law students turned politicos, so once again we have the beginnings of a great Hungarian Tempest-in-a-Teapot to watch for the next few weeks. Already, walls around Budapest have been spray-painted with the slogan "MUK" which stands for "We'll Start Again in March." This was a slogan used in the winter of 1957 after the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Recycling old slogans is very big here. The FIDESZ TV news channel, Hir TV referred to the incident as the "removal of the Iron Curtain."And here we have the néni brigade, the angry aunties, complete with the Arpad-striped flag. It's not just a gaggle of irritating old women screaming at you, it's a gaggle of irritating old women holding flags that hark back to Hungary's Arrow Cross Party, the gang of hoodlums that Adolf Eichmann appointed to exterminate Hungary's Jews even as the Soviet Army was rolling across the Puszta in 1945. The Arpad flag is just one of the more hateful symbols used by the Hungarian right. Above are the... "Goy Motorcyclists"... a motorcycle club that uses their rather expensive touring bikes at right wing rallies to make noise, slow traffic, and intimidate the police. They are called the Goy Motor Club so that nobody will get any idea in their head that they are... well, as they say, "not Hungarian." In Hungary, behind every Right Wing slogan lies an antisemitic sentiment. Well, at least we can all agree on one thing... eat more kolbasz!