BUDAPEST (JTA) — A Hungarian court ruled that an international neo-Nazi march can take place in Budapest.
Monday’s ruling overturns a decision by police prohibiting the demonstration, which commemorates the defeat of German rule in Eastern Europe during World War II, for reasons of maintaining public order.
The neo-Nazi Day of Honor rally rescheduled for next month is intended to mark the last stand of the German occupiers and their Hungarian supporters against the Soviet Red Army 65 years ago.
The Nazi defeat at Buda Castle is associated in Hungary with the end of the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of more than a half-million Hungarian Jews. Annual parades mourning the Nazi losses have been staged traditionally at Heroes Square in Budapest by a coalition of European neo-Nazi organizations.
This year, the march was planned for Feb. 13 but was postponed. Instead, neo-Nazi organizations held private ceremonies, undisturbed by the police, on private grounds near the capital. Groups also staged unauthorized marches in Buda.
Two peaceful demonstrators attending an anti-Nazi rally held in Pest over the weekend were physically assaulted on their way home by a gang of skinheads.
