EURO-UNION POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK.
Part III. Neo-fascists at the political scene of the new EU member-states

Lost wars, nostalgia for the majestic greatness, economic and political crises make up perfect grounds for the extremist, nationalistic and purely fascist organizations. It’s only JOBBIK that openly tells the truth about its sympathies towards Nazism but the line that separates the slightly more civilized ultra-rights from the outright Hungarian fascist is so thin that the threat of the European fascistization doesn’t look that unreal anymore.

The end. Previous parts are given here:
http://www.win.ru/en/school/4436.phtml
http://www.win.ru/en/school/4438.phtml

"Great Romania" inside of the united Europe: against gypsies, Hungarians and everyone else Ultra-nationalists appeared in Romania in the beginning of the 90s, right after the collapse of the socialistic system. In this country rise of the post-socialistic era was marked by the collision of the state discourse and the national one. That was the period of time when the Frontul Salvării Naţionale¹ (FSN) emerged. On the 19th of 1990 this — clearly nationalistic movement — provoked the mass riots in Târgu Mureş where the beating of the Hungarian national minority takes place. As a result, 6 people were killed, about 300 were injured.

In 1991 Partidul România Mare² (PRM) — headed by Vadim Tudor and Eugen Barbu — replaced the FSN. A year after its creation, party gained 4 percents of the votes at the parliamentary elections. Party owed the success to one of its leaders — Vadim Tudor, former court poet for Nicolae Ceauşescu. PRM is a typical ultra-right end extremely nationalistic party, calling for the ethnocratic state structure and appealing to the quite definite "historical roots". Anti-Hungarian rhetoric — including the "tragic loss of Transylvania" memories and the barefaced war against the Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România³ (UDMR) which was dubbed "fascist" by the adherents of the "Greater Romania" — was the most important element of the PRM propagandistic tools. In 2000 the party obtained 20% of the votes, having placed second due to the number of its deputy mandates. However, party lost the next elections and actually failed to get into the parliament. Fact of Romania entering the European Union has whipped up the nationalistic sentiments in the Romanian society and at the 2009 European Parliament elections PRM managed to get 9% of the votes.

Partidul Noua Generaţie⁴ (PNG) is a yet another example of this trend. This is a one-man-party — the one belonging to Gigi Becali, owner of the Steaua Bucureşti football club. Behavior of the party "owner" himself is every bit as grotesque as it is unpredictable. He, for example, is known for his weird piety, proclaiming himself to be the "apostle of the Romanian politics", and blaming his sports competitors to be funded by the "Hungarian masons". Becali promised to "kill the devil" in Romania, and though his party have failed to pass through the voter’s barrier, in 2009 he obtained the Euro-deputy mandate himself.

Demagogy of the Romanian ultra-rights falls on the fertile ground of the social nostalgia for the strong hand — it is the authoritative-style politicians, promising to take care of the national interests, who succeed in the country. A lot of the voters treat their calls for the national unity as the promises of the social and economic security. Besides the legally acting Romanian ultra-right populists this country also features new ultra-radical rights whose activity lies outside of the legal democratic framework. They emphasize their genetic connection with the famous fascist Iron Guard, preach racism, anti-communism and call to ban all the Gypsies from Romania.

Romanian political situation is extremely unstable. In spite of the marginal role of the undisguised fascists, quite legal ultra-right parties tend to use their mottos from time to time — that gives the evidence of the need for the fascist ideology in this country.

"Great-power" Hungary

Hungary has long ago lived with the perception of split personality between the Hungary of broken dreams and Hungary that the "great power" status was stolen from. The first one is the reality, while the second one are the dreams of past (Hungary prior to the 1920 Trianon Treaty that used to have sea exits, three times larger territory and the state power). Former Hungarian territories have been passed to the contemporary Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Austria and the Ukraine. One would think that the 90-year-old history can only be the object for the historians’ researches, but in today’s Budapest you may find the stickers with the image of Great Hungary at the school exercise books, coats of the young men and their automobiles.

Lost wars, nostalgia for the majestic greatness, economic and political crises make up perfect grounds for the extremist, nationalistic and purely fascist organizations. In 2006 Hungary was struck with the political crisis of an unprecedented strength, when all the newspapers and TV-channels of the country savored the informational leak from the then Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány address to his party-fellows. Having used juicy billingsgate language, then Prime Minister and leader of socialists has characterized the "successes" of his government and his personal attitude towards his native country and the voters. Hungarians were especially indignant with the epithets Gyurcsány used to describe Hungary itself. Lacking the ability to give the word-for-word version of the unquotable words of Hungarian Prime Minister in this article, we may just say that he dubbed his Motherland to be a lady of easy virtue in the utmost cynical discourteous manner. As a result of that, Hungary was unsettled by a series of mass protests, socialist Gyurcsány didn’t resign and the political preferences of Hungarians have abruptly moved from left to right. We also have to add that the deepest and the most severe economic recession in the contemporary history of the country fell for the term of the socialist government. Altogether, that made a fertile ground for the new ultra-rights to appear at the Hungarian political scene.

In the end of the previous century, after the complete marginalization of the frankly pro-fascist Magyar Igazság és Élet Pártja⁵ (MIÉP), it was even more clamorous movement JOBBIK — i. e. the Movement for the Better Hungary (in Hungarian "jobb" means both "better" and "right") — that filled the vacuum in this part of political specter. Its popularity is based at the crafty manipulations with social phobias concerning the Gipsy minority and the nostalgia for the Greater Hungary. JOBBIK leaders are constantly reminding Hungarians of the Southern Slovakia — lost due to the Trianon Treaty — which they persistently call the "Upper Hungary", having supported their position of the fight for the rights of Magyar national minority, populating that territory. JOBBIK blames post-communists, homosexuals and Jews for the crisis of Hungarian state.

In order to defend the country Gábor Vona, leader of this movement, has created an armed organization called "Magyar Guard". Guardsmen march through the streets of Budapest wearing the specific hats called "bocskai", white shirts with the red-white neckerchiefs, military uniform and holding the "Nyilaskeresztes⁶" banners — pure and simple "old-school" fascist party that existed since 1938 to 1945 and was called "Nyilaskeresztes part" or the Arrow Cross Party. After the war leaders of this pro-Hitler Nazi party were convicted as the war criminals. JOBBIK has adopted not only the Nazi symbols but also their methods of work. In August of last year — right after the funeral march, dedicated to the 65th anniversary of extermination of Gypsies at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp (also known as Oświęcim in our country) — Vona’s militants have murdered Gipsy woman at the Kisléta village in the east of Hungary.

^{JOBBIK banner, borrowed from the "Nyilaskeresztes part"}

JOBBIK is much more sophisticated and dangerous than any of the Western-European anti-Islamists and fighters against the illegal immigration. It is based on two mythologemas — both of them are to play a role of bait for two different social groups of electorate. The first — or the negative one — is a "Trianon disgrace" and the dreams of the great-power past, the second one — is the anti-communist rebellion of 1956. The second mythologema is much more dangerous than the first one as long as — first of all — it appeals not to the nationalists but to the democratically-minded Hungarians. JOBBIK "privatization" of the historical memories of anti-communist fight features a clearly propagandistic character. So, for example, in August of 2007 it were 56 first members of the Magyar Guard who took an oath of allegiance, and it was Lajos Für, former Hungarian Minister of Defense, who presented them their certificates. But the true ideological forefather of JOBBIK is Miklós Horthy, plain fascist and dictator who ruled over Hungary since 1920 to 1944 — during the Second World War he was a Hitler’s ally who declared the war on the USSR.

According to Gábor Vona’s opinion, Horthy’s regime wasn’t based on lies, robbing own nation with the high interest rates or corruption, but rather on the Hungarian honesty and order. He modestly fails to mention that Horthy’s regime along with the Hitler’s Wehrmacht brought the Hungarian troops to Yugoslavia in April of 1941, that Hungarian Prime Minister Pál Teleki has committed suicide as a an act of protest against this action, that Horthy participated in deportation of Jews and Gypsies along with the SS troops. Former Navy Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Admiral Horthy was an ominous but yet pompously-funny person. His dictatorship featured certain buffoonery elements (one might recall his solemn entrance to Budapest, riding a white horse in 1919, and his statement that he forgives "the sinful capital that defiled the Motherland"). His regime is exhaustively defined by the wording of a certain German historian: "Admiral, ruling over the kingdom without a king in country with no seas".

^{Admiral Miklós Horthy, Regent of Kingdom of Hungary}

To a considerable degree need for JOBBIK and the danger it poses is defined by the complicated relationship between Hungary and Slovakia — mind that both sides are responsible for the conflict. After eight-year-long rule of Mikuláš Dzurinda rightist government, left nationalists — headed by pragmatic and absolutely adequate Robert Fico — came to power in Slovakia. However, in order to form the government he had to enter the coalition with nationalistic Slovak National Party, headed by Jan Slota — whose political program is based on the negative experience of Hungarian-Slovak relationship of the "Greater Hungary" period. After the few frankly anti-Hungarian Slota’s statements (Hungarians make up approximately 10% of Slovak population) and his promises to send the Slovak tanks to assault Budapest, Fico government has adopted the amendment to the law on language, which deprived the Slovak national minorities of the right to speak their native languages in public. According to the opinion of Martin Šimečka, Slovak writer and publicist, it brought the Slovak-Hungarian relationship back to the level of 1918-1945.

Hungarian reaction followed immediately after Fidesz Party — headed by Viktor Orbán — coming to power in April of this year. New Hungarian Prime Minister has instantly stated his intention to grant the Hungarian citizenship to the ethnic Hungarians, living abroad. We’re talking about nearly 3.5-4 million of Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Ukrainian citizens. Having been interviewed by the daily paper "Heti Valasz" on the 13th of May, Szolt Semjen — leader of the Christian Democrats, stated: "We have a fundamental duty to all Hungarians to obliterate the spiritual shame of Trianon. Every Hungarian, no matter what country does he live in, may take the Hungarian citizenship within three months of applying for it at our embassy. They should gain all the same rights as those Hungarians who live in Hungary, except the suffrage".

Right after him Viktor Orbán claimed that Hungary is probably the only country in the world that "borders itself", obviously implying to the Slovak Hungarians. Slovakia immediately promised to file the complaint to the OSCE as long as 520 thousand Slovak Hungarians (10% of the population) would create a "threat to the national security" in this case. It is unclear yet, what would be the Brussels’ reaction to the initiative of giving the Hungarian, i. e. European passports to 120 thousand Ukrainian citizens, but it would hardly like it.

JOBBIK is supported by about 20% of Hungarian voters. Its leader, Gábor Vona formed an extensive social ground for his party — starting with the scholar and students’ groups up to the farmers’ and senior citizens clubs and policemen labor unions. Party has its own radio-station; its propagandists have popular Internet blogs. Vona managed to incline young and beautiful Krizstina Morvai, professor and the human rights activist, to cooperate. Thanks to this gain, JOBBIK face is rather attractive, unlike the rest of the European ultra-right parties.

According to the opinion of the above-quoted Martin Šimečka, "Hungarian nationalism is dangerous as it has strong roots. Its history totals about a thousand years and it derives its strength from the Hungarian feeling of loneliness, whose historical fate placed them into the surrounding of the Slavic nations." According to the well-known Hungarian philosopher Miloš Tomáš, current situation in Hungary is fraught with the denial of the civil democracy model. He says that in future Hungary may fetch itself in front of the choice between socialization and fascism.

Twenty years ago Nobel Prize winner Czesław Miłosz, having paraphrased the Marxism classics, said: "Ghost is wandering across the Europe, ghost of the nationalism this is". In a contemporary Europe nationalists, balancing on the verge of fascism, have become a visible power. While in June of 2009 JOBBIK obtained only 3 mandates at the European Parliament elections, mind that it would be 13 deputies from the United Kingdom Independent Party, 4 representatives of Dutch People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, 3 members of the Greater Romania Party, 2 members of the Bulgarian National Union Attack, 2 members from the Austrian Freedom Party, 2 members from Danish People’s Party, 1 deputy from the Slovak National Party and one more deputy from the True Finns Party who will take the seats besides them.

All of them are unified by the extremist nationalism, euro-skepticism and xenophobia. It’s only JOBBIK that openly tells the truth about its sympathies towards Nazism but the line that separates the slightly more civilized ultra-rights from the outright Hungarian fascist is so thin that the threat of the European fascistization doesn’t look that unreal anymore.

By Gregory Tinsky

¹ Front of the National Salvation.
² Greater Romania Party.
³ Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania.
⁴ New Generation Party.
⁵ Hungarian Justice and Life Party.
⁶ Arrow Cross Party.