Hungarian Parliamentarian Makes Anti-semitic Remarks in Legislature

For the first time since World War II, a member of the Hungarian Parliament has openly made anti-Semitic remarks in that body.

During a speech to the legislature, Gyula Zacsek, a member of Parliament representing a small right-wing party, sharply criticized the involvement of an Israeli firm in the privatization of a Hungarian supermarket chain.

According to Zacsek, the Israeli firm bought its shares in the Hungarian company for a lower price than was expected.

Zacsek — employing the anti-Semitic rhetoric often used by Istvan Csurka, the leader of far-right elements in Parliament — concluded his attack on the Israeli firm by saying the business deal was an example of the “Zionist plot” against Hungarians.

Zacsek also used the occasion to criticize the Jewish Agency’s activities in Hungary, which he described as “illegal.”

As was pointed out in the Hungarian media, neither the speaker of Parliament nor any Parliament members attempted to interrupt Zacsek’s speech.

Tuvia Raviv, the head of the Jewish Agency’s office in Budapest, countered Zacsek’s charges during an interview with a daily newspaper here, explaining that the Jewish Agency has been working legally in Hungary for the past four years.

The Budapest office of the Jewish Agency has been responsible for helping some 157,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union make aliyah to Israel, and also helped arrange transit through Budapest for approximately 1,200 Jews who were bound for Israel from the former Yugoslavia.

CONCERN OVER ANTI-SEMITISM

Raviv recalled that a busload of Russian emigrants was attacked near the Budapest airport and almost died as a result of a remote-control explosive.

In an incident further underscoring the appeal of right-wing ideologies here, supporters of the far-right World National Popular Rule Party gathered in Budapest at what is believed to be the grave of Ferenc Szalasi, the leader of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party during the 1940s.

Szalasi, a supporter of Hitler’s, was executed after World War II as a war criminal.

The gathering started with the Nazi raised-hand salute, and Szalasi was hailed as a hero.

The Budapest chief prosecutor has introduced a civil suit against the Popular Rule Party, asking the courts to dissolve it.

The prosecutor said the group promotes racist ideas.

The party’s chairman, Albert Szabo, an Australian-Hungarian, dismissed the prosecutor’s accusations, saying his party “wants to replace predatory capitalism with a socialism based on nationalist ideals.”

In another development, leaders of the Hungarian Jewish community filed a petition with the Hungarian government demanding that a government-controlled television program apologize for having used an offensive comparison.