generalspeaking

The Historical Unknown

 As hard economic times hit more European countries their governments are increasingly confronted by hard-right opposition groups who have found new popularity levels among the indigenous populations concerned about new austerity measures being imposed upon them by international banks insistent that in exchange for monetary support to avoid bankruptcy social programs be sacrificed.

In Greece and In France the rise in popular support of far-right parties has been noted as a worrying trend.
Hungary, once a part of the powerful, imperial Austro-Hungarian empire, has long since been reduced in territory, with a remaining population of just over ten million people.  During the Second World War, and the German occupation, the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party and Hungarian police deported 440,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.

Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who ended up in a Soviet prison after the war and was never heard from again, managed to save the lives of a large number of Hungarian Jews, providing them with Swedish passports on his personal initiative.  One of the leaders of the Hungarian Aid and Rescue Committee, Rudolf Kasztner negotiated with SS officers to permit some Jews to escape in exchange for money, gold and diamonds.

And while other diplomats went out of their way to provide humanitarian relief for Hungarian Jews through the provision of false papers and safe houses in the capital Budapest, hundreds of ordinary Hungarians were executed by the Arrow Cross Party for sheltering Hungarian Jews.  There is a different kind of war now, one of economic hardships and adversity, with many Hungarians feeling that membership in the European Union has availed them little despite their expectations that membership would aid them.

While EU membership following the breakdown of the Soviet Union did not bring prosperity to Hungary, the current straitened financial circumstances throughout the European Union member-countries has turned the country's dependence on the West to new questions about what else Western-oriented membership has imposed on Hungary.  The tolerance of the presence of Jews, gays and Roma has provoked anger, reawakening the traditional Hungarian clasp of scapegoats during hard times.

Hungary's far-right political party, Jobbik, with its resurgent, quite overt anti-Semitism, and hostility to other minorities is making many Hungarians uneasy.  Above the authoritarian nationalist tenor in the country, a new strain of bigotry has surfaced.  Tough economic times never failed to fan the flames of racism and discrimination.  Jobbik has introduced a bill referring to homosexuality as a perversion, banning its 'promotion'.

The party has 46 seats in the 386 seats of the Hungarian Parliament, so although it has a certain amount of influence as a party with the third-largest seat numbers, at this juncture it can only submit bills that it intends to use to encourage the rise of bigotry to satisfy its ideological priorities.  For the time being its influence with the governing Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains limited.  But that may not be forever.

Jobbik encourages closer relations with Iran.  One of its members of Parliament, Marton Gyongyosi, described Iran as "an extremely peaceful country".  The same Jobbik MP, while being careful to insist he doesn't question the existence of the Holocaust, claims it not to have been "exceptional and above all sufferings" and genocides.  And that the only reason it is held to be so horrifyingly exceptional is because Jews keep it front and centre.

The Jobbik party has its own magazine, where it derides the "Deviant West", as opposed to the acceptability of the traditional values of the "Normal East".  The party made an effort to bring a halt to Budapest's gay pride parade, labelling it a degenerate event tolerated in other EU countries, but an assault on Hungarian sensibilities.

That same issue of the Jobbik magazine made mention of the Jewish blood libel; historical accounts of Jews purportedly using the blood of Christian children in rites, or to prepare matzo with: "Whether this is true or not", however, the story went on, is unknown.

Labels: Anti-Semitism, Economy, European Union, Holocaust, Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Human Rights, Prejudices, Racism, Social-Cultural Deviations, Values

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, April 28, 2012