Meet Europe's New Fascists, Hungary's Far-Right Jobbik Party – Tablet Magazine Continue reading: Jobbik’s unlikely opponent While Jobbik’s rise is a reflection of just how resoundingly the electorate lurched to the right, the party does not necessarily fit into the traditional left-right paradigm. Support for Jobbik is also a protest against the country’s political establishment. “If they only centered on anti-Semitism or anti-Roma issues, they would be a marginal thing,” Gabor Takacs, an analyst at the conservative think tank Nezopont, told me. “But what makes them attractive is their radicalism, their voice. And this is something that is very attractive to young people, mainly, who say ‘the politicians are all corrupt liars and I don’t understand their language and they always beat about the bush instead of tackling the problems.’ ” But unlike Western European countries, where right-wing parties rail against immigration, Hungary has a negligible immigrant population. What it does have are Roma and Jews.

In its warnings about an “Israeli occupation” of Hungarian business and real estate, its bloodcurdling cries against the Roma, and its slogan of “Hungary for the Hungarians,” Jobbik is tapping into very deep-seated Hungarian political traditions. One of the first things that struck me during my first visit to Hungary was the prevalence of bumper stickers and postcards depicting “Greater Hungary”—that is, Hungary as it was during the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before it came out on the losing side in World War I. The loss of two-thirds of its territory and the dispersal of one-third of its people to the various successor states has left a profound psychological wound on the Hungarian right. Jobbik uses the map of Greater Hungary in its propaganda—a wooden engraving of one sits prominently on Gyöngyösi’s coffee table—and the party campaigned on the pledge that “the Trianon borders should be dropped within a few generations or as soon as possible.” But popular support for Jobbik cannot be attributed only, or even mostly, to ideology.

Most of the Hungarians voting for Jobbik do so because of what’s referred to as “the Roma issue”—that is, government’s persistent failure to integrate Gypsies (as they are colloquially, yet not pejoratively, known) into Hungarian society. A cultural lethargy and political correctness has inhibited the country from grappling with this issue, leaving many frustrated voters, particularly those in rural areas who live in close proximity to Roma, to choose a radical party that offers a simple solution to the problem: Put them in ghettos . Socialist Party leader Attila Mesterhazy accepts some share of the blame for the rise of Jobbik: “I would say the [Socialist Party] is responsible not for [Jobbik’s] creation, but how they could gain support in society, just because of the fact that our government did not pay much attention to these very poor people, frustrated people.” Many Jobbik voters, particularly in the more rural, eastern half of the country, are not ideological right-wingers, but frustrated, lower-middle-class people who abandoned the Socialists.

“If someone said 10 years ago that a neo-fascist party would get 20 percent of the vote, I would say they are crazy,” said Jeno Kaltenbach, the country’s first ombudsman for minority rights. But given that Hungary’s economic situation shows no sign of improving and that Prime Minister Orban has echoed Jobbik’s anti-E.U. rhetoric—even though he has resolutely resisted racism and anti-Semitism—the party is likely to remain a force in Hungarian politics for the foreseeable future. *** “There’s a joke in Hungary about the researcher who is studying anti-Semitism,” Matyas Eorsi, a former member of parliament from a now defunct liberal party, the Alliance of Free Democrats, told me. “And he goes to a small village in Transylvania and asks an old man, ‘Excuse me sir, can I ask you: is there any anti-Semitism in your village?’ He replies: ‘Sir, not at all. But there’s a huge demand for it.’ ” This apocryphal tale hints at a reality of Hungarian politics, which is that anti-Semitism has typically required clever ideologists and an adverse political and economic environment to make it truly dangerous.

Though Jews, like members of other faiths, had to endure restrictions on religious practice during the Communist period, the sort of virulent anti-Semitism that one regularly hears today was kept under wraps. “Nowadays more people dare to speak openly about their anti-Semitic feelings,” said Laszlo Csosz, a historian at Budapest’s Holocaust Memorial Center. “So, I don’t think the number of anti-Semites radically increased. But they’ve become louder and more explicit.” The strongest push-back against the nationalist right hasn’t come from the Roma or the Jews but has emerged from an unlikely source. Most Hungarians get their news from television, but because state media is now firmly in government hands, there is only one station that reliably airs news programs criticizing the government. During the day and early evening, this station’s news programs regularly feature stories about international criticism of the path Hungary has taken, and its talk shows provide a platform to Fidesz critics. And then, at 10 p.m., the Pat Robertson’s 700 Club begins. This is ATV, owned by a group of Hungarian investors who are mainly members of the Faith Church, a Pentecostal Christian sect.

Led by Pastor Sandor Nemeth, a former Catholic theologian who is one of the loudest and most passionate opponents of the Hungarian far right, the church claims about 50,000 members. Though he leads a socially conservative flock, Nemeth and the journalists in his mini-media empire stand foursquare against the type of nationalism that, in Europe especially, comes packaged with explicitly religious ornamentation. “Ever since the beginning of the 1990s, the right in Hungary has always represented traditional nationalism, and this is something we could not align ourselves with because we consider this whole ideology to be full of poison,” Nemeth told me. “What we’ve seen is a nostalgia and a sympathy toward the pre-Second World War ideologies and movements, which were all represented in the political right. And we saw that in quite a number of groups within the right, anti-Semitism wasn’t far from them. They haven’t distanced themselves. They haven’t put an end to this period.” In addition to ATV, the church also publishes a weekly news magazine, Hetek, which regularly exposes the foibles and dangers of Jobbik.

A few days before I interviewed Gyöngyösi, Hetek published an article in which anonymous sources within the party accused him of being a mole for Hungary’s domestic intelligence agency. When I asked Gyöngyösi about this claim, he replied that Hetek had paid the men to make these accusations. (“We don’t use such methods,” said Peter Morvay, who holds senior editorial positions at Hetek and ATV.) Morvay said that the station has doubled its ratings since the Fidesz government took power and regularly reaches a daily audience of about 1 million viewers—a huge number in a country of 10 million people. Only 5 percent of the station’s content is explicitly Christian-oriented, he says, and fewer than half of its employees are members of the church. Nemeth feels an obligation to be involved politically because so much of the anti-Semitic rhetoric in Hungary emanates from prejudices that have been inflamed by Christian churches. “There are nationalists in Hungary who try to stand on Christian grounds, but when I say ‘Christian’ I mean in a cultural and political sense, not in the original spiritual sense because most of these people are not Christians, they are pseudo-Christians,” he told me.

The church’s anti-extremist campaign goes beyond investigative journalism and stinging editorials. Members infiltrated skinhead movements beginning in the 1990s and hosted a road-show exhibition on the 50th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary. It currently operates a “Jobbik-watch network” across the country, restores Jewish cemeteries, and plans to launch a campaign, “All Together for Jerusalem,” to emphasize the historical connection between Jerusalem and the Jewish people. The church’s media organs are unabashedly pro-Israel. Nemeth said that, through the church and its media, he wants to “promote people like Theodore Herzl, who was born in Hungary, and he’s the founder of the state of Israel, and many Hungarians don’t know of his connections to Hungary.” The Faith Church has won praise from the country’s Jewish community and some liberal figures that are otherwise skeptical of evangelical Christians. Karl Pfeifer , an Austrian journalist who has reported frequently from and about Hungary for three decades, recalls that when he first met Nemeth in the early 1980s, the pastor promised him that he was going to build a movement to combat Hungarian anti-Semitism.

“When I heard this I said the Yiddish word, ‘Halevai,’ It will be good,” said Pfeifer, a Holocaust survivor. “They are real friends of Israel and the Jewish people,” said Peter Feldmajer, the head of the Hungarian Jewish community. The church was originally aligned with the Alliance of Free Democrats, the extinct liberal party. But, according to Matyas Eorsi, the former MP, it “started to dislike us because we approved homosexuality, euthanasia, and abortion.” Today, while espousing socially conservative views, the church has not shifted to the political right, and, unlike most large institutions within the country, it is independent of Fidesz. Hungary is not, as some in the European media have alleged, becoming a fascist dictatorship. The rise of the far right has, somewhat ironically, coincided with a revival of Jewish life. The opposition media, in spite of the new regulatory authority, remains fiercely critical of the government, as the popularity of ATV and Hetek attests. Public protests are frequent and proceed unhindered. But as Hungary faces the worst set of crises to befall it since the communist period, things are likely to get worse before they get better.

As Gyöngyösi told me: “Extraordinary times create extraordinary situations.” *** Like this article? Sign up for our Daily Digest to get Tablet Magazine’s new content in your inbox each morning. James Kirchick, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative, is a columnist at Tablet . He is a former writer at large for Radio Free Europe based in Prague and a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow based in Berlin. His Twitter feed is @jkirchick . Seven far-right parties at the European Parliament - ITV News 27 May 2014 at 1:41pm Seven far-right parties at the European Parliament Supporters of the far-right Golden Dawn party cheer for a party lawmaker during a pre-election rally in Athens. Photo: Reuters Among the more mainstream Anti-EU political parties like Nigel Farage's Ukip that triumphed in Sunday's elections there is now a pocket of far-right influence at the European parliament. The far-right has gained a significant amount of ground in last week's European Elections and the EU parliament is about to welcome the most Eurosceptic and right-wing intake in its history.

In the UK, Nick Griffin's British National Party lost its only seat in the European parliament , but the picture across Europe is different, with political parties that until recently occupied the fringes of European politics making inroads. Whilst two-thirds of the European Parliament remains pro-union, a large Eurosceptic bloc could cause serious problems when attempting to pass legislation that the right-wing parties may feel threatened by or that doesn't fit their own political agendas. Front National - France Marine Le Pen, France's National Front political party head. Credit: Reuters Leader: Marine Le Pen France's far-right party shocked many French commentators when it topped the polls last week and leader Marine Le Pen has worked hard move away from the party's past and create a more polished image. However, the mask occasionally slips: Party founder and Marine's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen recently said at a pre-election rally that he worried that continuing immigration could 'eradicate' the French population. Golden Dawn - Greece Lawmaker of the far-right Golden Dawn party Ilias Panagiotaros delivers a speech during a pre-election rally.

Credit: Reuters\Yorgos Karahalis Spokesman: Ilias Kasidiaris Golden Dawn's chief spokesman Kasidiaris is the face of Greece's third post popular political party and is well-liked by the public in his country. In 2012 he slapped female Greek Communist MP Liana Kanelli and some see the boost in popular support he got in the wake of this incident one of the key factors that got him elected to the Greek Parliament. The party ran for parliament under the slogan "So we can rid this land of filth", has set up Greek-only foodbanks and it is reported that Kasidiaris has a swastika tattoo. The party insists it is not neo-Nazi. Read: Blair: Major parties should be worried about Ukip rise National Democratic Party - Germany Supporters and members of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) march during a demonstration on May Day in Berlin. Credit: Reuters Leader: Udo Pastörs This German party has been described by Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert as an "anti-democratic, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-constitutional party" and campaigned for the European parliamentary elections with posters claiming "Money for Grandma, Instead of for Sinti and Roma".

Jobbik - Hungary Gabor Vona, the chairman of the far-right Jobbik party. Credit: Reuters Leader: Gábor Vona Nationalist party Jobbik matched its 2009 results, obtaining 14.7% of the vote and three MEPs. Arguably one of the more clearly neo-Nazi parties in Europe, members have in the past called for Jewish residents to sign a register. 50 graves at a Jewish graveyard in Szikszo - an area with huge Jobbik support - were desecrated earlier this month. Austrian Freedom Party - Austria Head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache (C) and top candidate Harald Vilimsky (R) celebrate. Credit: Reuters\Heinz-Peter Bader Leader: Heinz-Christian Strache Strache's far-right party increased its share of the vote to 20.5% on an anti-immgration platform. It doubled its number of MEPs to four despite changing leading candidate at the last minute in the wake of a scandal over racist remarks. It is widely thought that AFP will form an alliance with Le Pen's Front Nationale.

Strache claims not be racist because he "eats kebabs." Party for Freedom - Holland Far-right politician Geert Wilders of the anti-immigration Dutch Freedom Party. Credit: Reuters\Michael Kooren Leader: Geert Wilders The Dutch far right and anti-Islam party performed worse than expected, gaining only 12.2% of the vote, behind the mainstream and pro-EU parties in the country. Their leader, Geert Wilders is know for his outspoken criticism of Islam and campaigns on a platform to end all Muslim immgration to the Netherlands and to repatriate those already living there. "I don't hate Muslims, I hate Islam" Wilders told the Dutch parliament in 2008. Finns - Finland The Finns leader Timo Soini. Credit: Reuters\Heikki Saukkomaa Leader: Timo Soini Finland's anti-Euro party triumphed in Finland with 27% of the vote and campaigns to reclaim border controls and to reduce benefits to other EU citizens living in Denmark. The party strongly rejects claims that it is racist but several of its MPs have found themselves in trouble over comments they have made about Muslims and same-sex couples.

Hungary's far-right Jobbik party, once on fringe, challenges for power | Reuters Wed Apr 1, 2015 | 2:38 PM EDT Hungary's far-right Jobbik party, once on fringe, challenges for power Gabor Vona, leaderof Hungary's far-right Jobbik party, delivers a speech in Budapest May 4, 2013. The sign reads: ''Only the nation''. Reuters/Laszlo Balogh By Marton Dunai | TAPOLCA, Hungary TAPOLCA, Hungary The Hungarian far-right leader Gabor Vona, founder of a since disbanded paramilitary group who made a career vilifying the Roma, has cleaned up his previously hardline image. Donning smart suits, he has softened his rhetoric and is wooing the mainstream voter, rather than any marginal groups. His personal makeover reflects his party Jobbik's transformation from hard-line fringe movement to serious political contender. So far, the strategy appears to be working: In the past year, support for Jobbik has surged to almost catch up with that of the ruling center-right Fidesz.

Last week, in the town of Tapolca western Hungary, a clean-shaven 37-year-old Vona made an appearance to support the local Jobbik candidate. Jobbik already holds the mayor's post, and hopes to take seat formerly held by Fidesz in an April by-election. During a town-hall style meeting in a sleepy rural suburb, Vona spoke of plans to restore services at the local hospital, combating official corruption and the region's economic outlook. The word "Roma" was not uttered once. "Our opponents may say this is only a media hack or a false turn, but time will tell," Vona told Reuters. "I honestly want to transform Jobbik into a people's party and to do that I know what is necessary. I know when and where to draw the line." Critics have cried foul, saying Jobbik's core remains as extremist as ever, but this has not impeded its rise. Support for Jobbik has rocketed by 50 percent in the past year to its highest-ever level, just as Fidesz recorded a steep plunge, according to pollster Ipsos.

There are currently no other major players: Hungary's Socialists, once a major political force, have not recovered since their crushing election defeat in 2010. Ipsos put Jobbik's national support at 18 percent against 21 for Fidesz, with around 40 percent undecided. Among under-30s, Jobbik leads already. Along with its image revamp, Jobbik has benefited from a series of policy missteps by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and a perception that senior officials around him are using their posts to enrich themselves. "Young people like us trust Jobbik," said Tapolca bookkeeper Peter Korodi, 35. "They discuss problems that affect us here. I don't think they are more radical than other right-wing parties. They are changing for the better." SKEPTICISM Korodi would not be drawn on Jobbik's extremist track record, which has previously attracted international attention. In 2012, there was an outcry when a Jobbik leader said lists should be drawn up of Hungarians with Jewish roots. "Voters fall for Jobbik's campaign of cuteness," Political Capital analyst Peter Kreko said.

"If something does not appear fascist then they don't recognize its fascism... I do not think there is real softening in Jobbik's political content." Lajos Rig, Jobbik candidate in Tapolca, remains popular even after it emerged he once shared a Facebook post that described the Roma as "the Jews' biological weapon against Hungarians." The post has since been removed from his Facebook page. Local media also reported he has a tattoo of the words "Loyalty and Honor", echoing the motto of Nazi Germany's paramilitary organization the SS. Rig said he re-distributed the Facebook post without paying attention to its contents, and said the tattoo was a wedding token to his wife and unrelated to the SS. He declined to show the tattoo to a Reuters reporter. COALITION UNLIKELY Jobbik's strong poll showing may or may not translate into success in the next elections, due in 2018, Kreko said. "At the moment Jobbik is the second-strongest party and a scenario is plausible where their role in forming a government is indispensable," Kreko said. However, it is not unusual for governing parties to suffer a drop in popularity midway through their term, he said.

Fidesz has said it would not work with Jobbik, and Jobbik has ruled out entering a coalition. Indeed, the biggest hurdle to Jobbik gaining power nationally is its lack of partners. "I never considered Jobbik palatable and I don't now," Janos Lazar, the prime minister's chief of staff and a vice chairman of Fidesz, told the web site index.hu last week. "Fascists like Jobbik never brought this country any good." A far-right party in government would be a first in the European Union since Joerg Haider's Freedom Party joined an Austrian coalition in 2000, isolating Vienna and leading to a revision of the EU's founding treaty to allow sanctions if democratic commitments of a member state are in doubt. Jobbik is part of a far-right surge across Europe, caused, sociologists say, by the economic slump and anger over immigration. Groups like France's Front National and Greece's Golden Dawn have also gained in popularity, although their success remains limited. France's National Front scored its best ever local election result in March but its chances for getting into power are tempered by widespread distaste for its far-right policies and an election system that allows voters to block it from office.

In Hungary, doubts persist that Jobbik's softer image is here to stay. "It's one thing that they say the nice words now," Erzsebet Kovacs, 50, a Fidesz supporter, said about Jobbik. "They always use sweet-talk during the campaigns. When there is no election, then they are scary, even their thoughts." (Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) Jobbik - Metapedia Jobbik Jobbik – The Movement for a Better Hungary Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom (English) Jobbik, The Movement for a Better Hungary ( Hungarian : Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom), commonly known as Jobbik, is a patriotic national liberation movement representing the interests of the Hungarian people. The party describes itself as a principled, conservative and radically patriotic Christian party, whose fundamental purpose is the protection of Hungarian values and interests. [2] Measured according to its representation in the European Parliament and the National Assembly , it is Hungary's third largest party.

Contents 1956 veteran Gergely Pongrátz : a Jobbik founder Foundation Originally established in 2002 as the Right-Wing Youth Association (Jobboldali Ifjúsági Közösség – JOBBIK) by a group of Catholic and Protestant university students, Jobbik was eventually founded as a political party in October 2003. [3] Template:Third-party-inline Instrumental in this was the person of Gergely Pongrátz , who in a speech to the founding conference made reference to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . [4] Template:Third-party-inline Around Christmas 2003, Jobbik started a nationwide cross-erecting action to remind Hungarians of the "true meaning" of the holiday. The move was disapproved by several Christian intellectual groups, while the churches did not officially object to the political absorption of the religious symbol. [5] The party has adopted the Árpád stripes as a symbol.

The stripes have been in use since the 13th century and have traditionally been associated with Hungary, deriving from the coat of arms of the House of Árpád , the dynasty which St. Stephen I of Hungary belonged to. Árpád house's flag Alliances Even though the far-right Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) and Jobbik had publicly shown their mutual aversion beforehand, both parties entered an electoral alliance for the 2006 national elections , called the MIÉP–Jobbik Third Way Alliance of Parties . Its intention was seen as winning votes from the major conservative Fidesz party. [6] In the 2006 Hungarian national elections the alliance won only 2.2% of the votes. Therefore, Jobbik termed the alliance a failure and virtually broke it up. In 2009 the State Audit Office (ÁSZ) reported the alliance for grave breaches of accounting rules. Jobbik blamed MIÉP alone for the irregularities. [7] Growth and electoral success Jobbik was perfectly positioned to capitalize on the mainstream growth in nationalist sentiment associated with the 2006 protests in Hungary .

After October 2006 it felt confirmed in the belief that the events of 1989 had essentially been a sham, because “Communists” were still in charge. Subsequent events permitted the party to consolidate its growth.[ citation needed ] Krisztina Morvai , who successfully headed the party's 2009 EP candidate list; and Gábor Vona the Jobbik party chairman; during their nationwide tour. In 2007 the party published a policy document [8] which sought to explain and find solutions to the problems of the preceding years. Named after Gábor Bethlen , it claimed that the country would suffer from a “crisis of constitutionality”, depicted all parties as acting to benefit themselves, corrupt, or idle. However, Jobbik saw a lack of support by the media as an obstacle to disseminating its policy approach.

As a result the party was compelled to mobilize primarily at the local level, which however, would bring it closer to the immediate concerns of the Hungarian electorate, namely the local effects of the global financial crisis , and the perceived rise of crime.[ citation needed ] The party faced its first electoral test with the coming of the 2009 European parliamentary elections . Once again however, it felt that it was being intentionally excluded by the media from the opportunity of presenting its (symbolically 56 page [9] ) manifesto to the public; [10] Consequently, party chairman Vona and Krisztina Morvai (who had agreed to head the party’s list), conducted a nationwide tour to take the party manifesto directly to the electorate. The election’s results surprised Jobbik [11] as much as it shocked their opponents: [12] the party sending three MEPs to Strasbourg ; coming close to level with the governing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) while eliminating their liberal coalition partner Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), to become the nation’s third party.

[13] Unsurprisingly, Morvai’s first speech [14] to the European parliament called for the chamber to be conscious of human rights abuses within the community , i.e. Hungary, in order to secure legitimacy about them taking place in other nations, i.e. Iran ; she asserted that every major anti-government demonstration had suffered the same fate since 2006. [15] Template:Third-party-inline Vona himself was pepper sprayed, handcuffed and arrested at a seated protest in Budapest on 4 July 2009, [16] Template:Third-party-inline Hungary's 2010 parliamentary elections saw Jobbik cement its position as the nation's 3rd largest party, doubling the vote it had received in the previous year and getting just 3 seats less than the previous ruling party MSZP (the Post-Bolshevistic party). International relations October 25, 2009 Jobbik founded the Alliance of European National Movements in Budapest together with political parties from four European countries, Nationaldemokraterna ( Sweden ), Fiamma Tricolore ( Italy ), Front National ( France ) and the Front National ( Belgium ).

[17] Manifesto and political programme The original programme (in Hungarian) contains 88 pages. There is a shortened English language manifesto: (24 pages) [18] Issues and ideology [ˈjobbik] ), which is in fact a play on words. The word Jobb in Hungarian has two meanings, the adjective for “better” and the direction “right,” the comparative Jobbik therefore means both ‘the more preferable choice’ and ‘more to the right’. This is similar to the English "Right Choice" meaning both Conservative and Proper.[ citation needed ] The meaning of the party’s 2009 election slogan “Hungary belongs to the Hungarians” (Magyarország a Magyaroké!) was also the subject of considerable scrutiny. Some critics thought the slogan essentially tautological, [19] while others were sufficiently concerned to mount a successful complaint at the National Electoral Commission; which ruled it “unconstitutional” on the very eve of the election.

[20] Jobbik maintained that the use of the slogan’s wording was justified because Hungary’s postbolshevic political and economic elite had been engaged in enriching themselves through placing the majority of the country’s significant assets into private or foreign ownership. [21] Patriotism Gábor Vona has set out his thoughts in "What do we mean by radicalism?" [22] Jobbik rejects the common classification of the political spectrum in left and right . It prefers a distinction of political parties based on their stance towards globalisation. On this scheme, the party sees itself as patriotic. [23] Jobbik's ideology has been described as national ideology , whose strategy “relies on a combination of ethno-nationalism with anti- elitist rhetoric and a radical critique of post-bolshevistic political institutions and theft of production establishments and real-estate by post bolshevistic, liberal Jewish "privatizers" . [24] [25] The most conspicuous advocate of the Hungarian expression of this nationalistic trend, radical nationalism , is Gábor Vona .

In the place of this illusory divide Jobbik substitutes the twin ideologies of, first, a virtually unrestrained capitalism (namely economic Neoliberalism ), and second, modern social liberalism (deemed to include Political correctness and Multiculturalism ); which it maintains are the two primary forces actually governing the lives of the modern European (and by extension Hungarian) citizen. But it is also mistaken to believe that these two ideologies are opposed, and in conflict. For Jobbik they represent the status quo , to which the majority of established politicians unquestioningly subscribe. [26] Moreover, any questioning would be pointless because these twin ideologies operate at the trans-national rather than national level. They are imposed and enforced by the directives and regulations of the European Union , which in the form of the Commission has already exclusively appropriated the most significant executive powers of national governments; and whose democratic removal the European elector is (by design) incapable of achieving.

[27] As a result the Hungarian citizen is forced to endure a succession of day-to-day realities that fly in the face of their own interests; [28] and there is nothing of merit that politicians from the two main parties can do about it, as a result they either spend their time enriching themselves, or manufacturing political controversies over symbolic issues in order to divert attention from their own impotence and corruption. [29] This is the radical element of Jobbik's ideology. The nationalist element comes from the suggested solution to this dilemma. As these two currently governing ideologies are considered, by definition, indifferent to the economic fate or cultural survival of the Hungarian people: nationalism is revealed as a sensible, intelligent and worthwhile political choice. [29] And a new and realistic divide emerges, which permits one to make valid and useful distinctions between policy options or Euro-legislation. Namely, does it serve the national interest, or not.

As Morvai Krisztina remarked on the 2009 campaign trail, “We have no use in Hungary, for those laws, [30] which in our own land actively disadvantage Hungarians and prioritise the interests of foreigners.” [31] Consequently, Vona has stated that he sees one of the key functions of the party to be compelling those in Hungarian public life to profess which side of this actual political dividing line they occupy. To declare “on which side of the real barricade they stand.” [32] The party’s magazine is entitled “Barricade” (Barikád) [33] for this reason. Jobbik's interpretation of Hungarian nationalism also includes the ideology of Turanism which stresses the (alleged) origin of the Magyar peoples in Central Asia, and the links of the Hungarians to Asian, especially Turkic peoples. Therefore Jobbik leader Gábor Vona favors Hungaria turning away from the so called, zionistic West (including the Euro-Atlantic alliances) and towards the "East", to form a "Turanian alliance" whose "Western bastion" Hungary should become.

[34] Jobbik's Greater Hungarian irredentist claims can be found in pleas for cross-border ethnic self-determination. For example, the party demands "territorial autonomy" for the Székely Land in Romania and desires to make Transcarpathian Ukraine an independent Hungarian district. [35] Cultural conservatism Jobbik tries to clean Hungarian culture from Bolshevistic-liberal pseudo culture and pornography. [36] Policy position Imminent EU regulations on arable land ownership are a major party issue. The economy Jobbik rejects the globalised capitalism, and the influence of foreign investors in Hungary. [37] Magyar irredentism The neutrality of this article is disputed. Encyclopaedic texts should be written in a neutral tone. See our Style guide for more information.

Hungarian losses of territory in the Treaty of Trianon , which is naturally perceived as wrong by Jobbik.[ citation needed ] [40] Jobbik dedicates itself to supporting the cause of the significant (a quarter of Hungarians live outside Hungary [41] ) Hungarian minorities that exist external to the nation's territory in countries bordering Hungary [42] in their campaigns[ citation needed ] to achieve self-determination and autonomy . [43] Of the three victorious powers of World War I it was the United States under Woodrow Wilson which argued for self-determination amongst the ethnic communities of the Austro-Hungarian empire .The city of Sopron was given the opportunity of deciding whether it wished to become part of Hungary or Austria through a plebiscite in 1921 following unrest. It decided on the former, but no other town was again granted the privilege.</ref> France and Britain however, arguably had a broader strategic agenda of ensuring that any future resurgent Germany would not have a European industrial ally to call upon. They therefore sought by their boundary decisions, primarily to economically cripple Austria and Hungary respectively to ensure this objective.

Though their intentions are a subject of debate, two consequences of their actions nevertheless followed. First, Austria-Hungary having been an autarky , its successor states were indeed economically crippled; Germany in World War II had no such industrially significant ally.) Second, the Treaty of Trianon (which in 1920 specifically partitioned the Kingdom of Hungary ) left large ethnically Hungarian communities (whose residence had spanned centuries) outside the territorial border of modern Hungary ; such communities today making up one quarter of Central Europe’s Magyar population. [41] As a consequence the Hungarian constitution states that, “The Republic of Hungary bears a sense of responsibility for what happens to Hungarians living outside of its borders and promotes the fostering of their relations with Hungary.” [44] However, according to Jobbik, successive Hungarian governments have found it inconvenient to honour this commitment. The resolution of the Magyar minority issue was sold as a chief benefit of joining the European Community. In Jobbik's view, the EU seems merely to have hoped that accession would have made this issue somehow disappear.

Jobbik sees the EU's continued and resolute refusal to get involved in any alleged incident of the infringement of Magyar minority rights as being in stark contrast to frequent and repeated highlighting of the Roma minority issue. In Hungary, Jobbik argues, minority issues are actively promoted and defended (through exclusive multi-ethnic radio and TV times, and dedicated social funding); the deliberate curtailment of Magyar rights is seen as not merely a rhetorical feature of the political extremes of some neighbouring countries, but actually a part of official government policy or of persisting legislation. (e.g. the racist Beneš decrees ) Jobbik campaigns for these communities to be given the opportunity of self-determination that was originally denied them. As a result the party has caused concern amongst those whose political or constitutional principles are strictly opposed to even countenancing such a proposal, due to commitments to territorial integrity. Hungarophobic campaign Jobbik have been victims of a vast and extensive Hungarophobic propaganda campaign in the international press. This largely eminates from decadent liberal "academics"/public policy think-tanks in the West, barely concealed supporters of communism and Jewish supremacists (who support Khazarian ethnocracy in Palestine but work tirelessly against Christian nations).

These identity groups and others are opposed to Hungary being a healthy Christian nation which serves the interests of its own people and choose to attack Jobbik for that reason. A broad array of operant conditioning epithets are slung out against Jobbik, including the typical playground name-calling of "fascist", "anti-semitic", "anti-gypsy", "homophobic", etc. This propaganda campaign also includes Wikipedia , which features a sardonic and heavily bias article against the party, violating its own supposed premise of neutral point of view for a completely Judeocentric line. The Hungarian Guard Main article: Magyar Gárda The Hungarian Guard in their cultural role. Here a Guard choir sings in Békéscsaba . The symbol of the Guard, the crest of King Emeric , decorated with lions and Árpád stripes , which is also part of their uniform.

In June 2007 president Vona, supported by the party, founded and registered the organisation called Magyar Gárda, which says in its deed of foundation that it intends to become “part or core” of the national guard to be set up in accordance with the Bethlen Gábor programme, and it also wishes to participate actively “in strengthening national self-defence” and “maintaining public order” as well as supporting and organising social and charity missions, in disaster prevention and civil defence. The foundation of the Guard was accompanied by sharp political debate. On 10 March 2008 three leading figures resigned from the party: Dávid Kovács , the founding president of the party, Ervin Nagy, committee chairman, and Márton Fári, former chairman of the party’s ethical committee. They indicated the Hungarian Guard as the cause of their resignation, stating that "Jobbik has been merged inseparably with the Guard, taking responsibility for something that it cannot really control in the long run".

On 2 July 2009 the Metropolitan Court of Appeal (Fővárosi Ítélőtábla) disbanded the "Magyar Gárda" Organization because the court held that the activities of the organization were against the human rights of minorities as guaranteed by the Hungarian Constitution . The Guard has attempted to reorganize itself as a civil service association, known as the Magyar Gárda Foundation, engaged in cultural and nation building activities rather than politics. Its renewed activities are opposed by the Hungarian authorities [45] and prosecutors claim that the founding of the new organization is in contempt of previous court rulings. Jobbik argues that the national police should be greatly strengthened and -with the FIDESZ - supports introducing a " three strikes law " [46] The radical nationalism in Hungary, including Jobbik protested against Israeli President Shimon Peres , after he said that " Israel is buying up Hungary ". [47] Election results Where is the far right most powerful in Europe? - Mirror Online News Where is the far right most powerful in Europe? "Anti-Islamisation" protestors marched through Germany last night and the far right seems to be on the rise throughout Europe.

Where is it closest to being in power? Share Right-wing demonstrators on January 5, 2015 in Dresden, eastern Germany. Share Get politics updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email It appears that whenever the economic climate turns harsh people look to political organisations with a nationalist agenda to save the day. Which country in Europe has the greatest representation of far-right power? Germany? Definitely not. Extreme nationalistic politics has been marginalised in Germany since the end of WWII. Understandably, the electorate is reluctant to let a bunch of Nazi sympathisers into government. The National Democratic Party has 0 parliamentary seats and the other parties don't want to be associated with it. Slogan: "Step on the gas". Yes, a bunch of German nationalists really said that. The United Kingdom? No. The British National Party is very marginal, without even any MEPs to boast about. It holds... 0 national parliamentary seats. If you wanted to really push a point and call the United Kingdom Independence Party "far right" because the party hates immigrants then it's a slightly different story.

The party's 2 MPs aren't much, but its 33% of the UK's European Parliament seats make it the most powerful eurosceptic group around. Slogan: Both parties have run with "Love Britain, Vote [UKIP/BNP]" Greece? Not a swastika Although the Golden Dawn caught attention with its snazzy not-at-all-a-swastika logo, its popularity is on the wane. The party holds 5% of Greek parliamentary seats and that's down from a considerably higher 2012 peak. Slogan: "Blood, Honour, Golden Dawn" Here's the top four countries which actually have far-right politics at the heart of its mainstream 1. Austria Surprisingly, Austria's Freedom Party is the most powerfully mainstream right-wing group in Europe. At the moment it holds about 22% of the country's electoral seats. Bonus fact: In 1999, the Freedom Party formed part of a coalition government, which attracted EU sanctions against Austria for "legitimizing the far right". Slogan: "More courage for Viennese blood, too many foreigners does no-one any good " 2.

Sweden Yes, their logo is a blue buttercup The Sweden Democrats hold 14% of the country's parliamentary seats. Most people agree they are not actually Nazis [PDF is in Swedish]. So that's nice. Slogan: "Keep Sweden Swedish" Bonus fact: Many party officials cite "Viking rock" band Ultima Thule as a prime influence in getting them involved in politics. 3. Hungary Jobbik is particularly into Christianity Jobbik isn't anti-Semitic; in fact, the party is so keen to emphasise this that it's actually illegal in Hungary to describe it as such. Although, of course, there was that time in 2012 when the party's leader described all people of Jewish descent as "a national security risk" and wanted to put their names on a list . Jobbik is relatively powerful in Hungarian mainstream politics: 12% of parliamentary seats. Slogan: "Hungary belongs to the Hungarians" Bonus fact: The party's commonly-used name "jobbik" is a pun on two meanings of the word "right"; it's equivalent to "Right Choice". 4.

The Netherlands PVV leader Geert Wilders looks too much like a supervillain to miss using a picture of him The PVV or Party For Freedom wants to STOP ALL IMMIGRATION from Muslim countries. It's quite powerful, with 8% of parliamentary seats - but that's quite a decline from its 2010 peak when it held 16%. Slogan: "More security, less immigration" Bonus fact: Party leader Geert Wilders regards Margaret Thatcher as his greatest political role model and has said, "I'm very afraid of being linked with the wrong rightist fascist groups." So what now? There are signs that the mainstream appeal of really extreme parties is actually on the wane, having peaked around 2011. That doesn't mean taking them for granted though. Supporters may have rejected mainstream politics or, more concerningly, they succeeded in making their xenophobic concerns part of the mainstream political discourse.

poll loading Populism in Europe: Hungary Reports Populism in Europe: Hungary January 2012 Jamie Bartlett, Péter Krekó, Jonathan Birdwell, Jack Benfield & Gabor Gyori Demos and Political Capital Open Society European Policy Institute Share Download the complete 47-page document. 440.15 KB pdf Nationalist populist parties are growing in strength across Europe. In Hungary, Jobbik (Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom, Movement for a Better Hungary), is the most successful far-right political party following the Cold War. Founded in 2003, it is now the third largest political party in Hungary. Its ideology is strongly nationalistic, combining opposition to capitalism and liberalism, with anti-Semitic and anti-Roma rhetoric. The Jobbik party has been particularly effective at mobilizing young Hungarians and using online communication and messages to amplify its message, recruit new members and organize. Jobbik's Facebook following is greater than its official membership list. This report by the UK think tank Demos and the Hungarian think tank Political Capital presents the results of a survey of over 2,000 Facebook fans of Jobbik.

It includes data on who they are, what they think, and what motivates them to shift from virtual to real-world activism. The report finds that identity and the protection thereof are key drivers of support for Jobbik. It also suggests that the party should not be grouped together with other nationalist populist parties in Western Europe. While there are obvious similarities, the demographics, concerns and attitudes of Jobbik supporters—as well as the Hungarian context—differ in significant ways. Populism in Europe: Hungary is the first in a series of briefing papers that will be released in 2012 about the online support of populist political parties and street-based groups in Europe. They are based on a data set of 13,000 Facebook fans of populist parties in 12 European countries, which was first presented in the Demos report The New Face of Digital Populism , released in November 2011. This report is part of an Open Society Foundations initiative conducting research and pilot projects tackling innovative approaches to keeping societies open in Europe.

Learn More: Inside the far-Right stronghold where Hungarian Jews fear for the future - Telegraph Hungary Inside the far-Right stronghold where Hungarian Jews fear for the future As the World Jewish Congress opens in Budapest amid a rise in anti-Semitism in Hungary, Colin Freeman visits the town of Tiszavasvári, twinned with Iran and the stronghold of the far-Right Jobbik party. An induction ceremony of the far-right Jobbik party for members of the Magyar Garda Photo: AFP Follow As the self-declared "capital" of the ultra-nationalist Jobbik Party, the town of Tiszavasvári prides itself on being a showcase for how the whole of Hungary might one day look. Since winning control of Tiszavasvári's local council three years ago on a pledge to fight "Gipsy crime", the party has been on a vigorous clean-up campaign, banning prostitution, tidying the streets, and keeping a watchful eye on the shabby Roma districts at the edge of town.

It even swore in its own Jobbik "security force" to work alongside the police, only for the uniformed militia, which drew comparisons with Hitler's brown-shirts, to be banned by Hungary's national government. Yet Gipsies are not the only bogeyman that Jobbik has in its sights, as a sign on the well-trimmed green opposite the Communist-era mayoralty building suggests. Written in both Hungarian and Persian, it proudly announces that Tiszavasvári is twinned with Ardabil, a town in the rugged mountains of north-west Iran. Gabor Vona delivers a speech during a rally against the World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in Budapest (Reuters) On the face of it, there is no obvious reason why a drab rustbelt town in Hungary's former mining area should seek links to a city in a hardline Islamic Republic 2,000 miles away. But this is no ordinary cultural exchange programme, and friendship has very little to do with it.

Instead, the real purpose of Jobbik's links to Iran is to show their mutual loathing of the Jewish state of Israel, which the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, notoriously declared should be "wiped from the pages of history". Related Articles Career of Hungarian president on the brink 30 Mar 2012 "The Persian people and their leaders are considered pariahs in the eyes of the West, which serves Israeli interests," said Marton Gyongyosi, a Jobbik MP and its leading foreign policy voice. "This is why we have solidarity with the peaceful nation of Iran and turn to her with an open heart." In many other countries in Europe, such a scheme might be dismissed as just petty town hall posturing, a Far right version of the "Loony Left" gesture politics practised in British town halls in the 1980s. But it is particularly sensitive in Hungarian towns like Tiszavasvári, where anti-semitism has seen Jews wiped from the pages of history once before.

Inquiries by The Sunday Telegraph via official Holocaust archives show a dozen names of Jewish victims from Tiszavasvári, part of the mass extermination programme that gave Jews in the Hungarian countryside only a one in ten chance of survival in 1944, Some simply disappeared, while others like Andor Krausz , a 30-year-old bookbinder, and Rozsi Gruenweld , a 48-year-old shoe merchant, were murdered in Auschwitz, along with among more than 400,000 other Hungarian Jews. A Jobbik supporter, the tattoo reads 'My Honor is Loyalty' (Reuters) It was one of the most intensive anti-Jewish campaigns of Holocaust, and while it was conducted during Hungary's period of Nazi occupation, it was done with the active connivance of the Hungarian state. " You can see Jobbik's true nature through this," said Peter Feldmajer, the President of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, which today represents an estimated 100,000 Hungarian Jews, nearly 90 per cent of whom still refuse to disclose their Jewishness publicly.

"They hate the Jewish people, and so does the Iranian government, and that is why they have formed this allegiance. It is a shame for Tiszavasvári, and it hurts the memories of those Jewish people who lived there." Such concerns will loom large in the minds of delegates of the World Jewish Congress, which opens amid tight security today at the Soviet-era Budapest Intercontinental Hotel overlooking the Danube. Normally the Congress meets in Jerusalem, but this year it has deliberately chosen to convene in the Hungarian capital to highlight what its president, the billionaire philanthropist and cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, describes as a "dramatic" rise in anti-Semitism in Hungary. Much of the blame for that is attributed to the Jobbik party, which was founded just ten years ago yet now represents the third-largest faction in politics, with 47 of 386 parliamentary seats. Also in Mr Lauder's sights, though, is the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose ruling centre-right Fidesz Party competes for many of the votes that Jobbik now vies for, and who has been criticised for not taking a firm enough stance against anti-Semitism.

"The number of anti-Semitic and racist incidents has risen dramatically in Hungary in recent years," Mr Lauder said last week. "This hatred manifests itself on the streets, in parliament, in the media. The Hungarian government must do more to fight this phenomenon." The Congress meeting adds to a growing sense of political isolation in Hungary, where earlier this year, the European Union said that Mr Orban's party was placing too many curbs on the judiciary and media, measures it said could ultimately disqualify the country from EU membership. While Mr Orban insists the measures have been necessary to end decades of corruption and inefficient government under his predecessors, the fear is that such measures are making it all the easier for groups like Jobbik to gain a foothold. A ban on the Jobbik party holding a counter-demonstration at the World Jewish Congress's presence in town has only added to their sense of grievance. Roughly translated as "the Movement for a Better Hungary", Jobbik's success has far outstripped similar movements in neighbouring former Communist states.

Its appeal in towns like Tiszavasvári has been based partly on confronting problems associated with the country's half-million strong Roma community, whom many Hungarians see as crime-prone and welfare-dependent. But as the global banking crisis has hit Hungary hard, leaving more than 1 in 10 jobless, Jobbik has also revived a folk devil at the opposite end of social spectrum - the wealthy, all-controlling Jews, who were traditionally influential in the finance world. Barely a month now passes in Hungary without a fresh furore over some anti-Semitic incident. Jewish community leaders have been attacked in the street and Jewish cemeteries desecrated. Far-Right biker gangs have also held ugly counter demonstrations to anti-Semitism rallies, entitled "Step on the Gas" days. Mr Gyongyosi, the Jobbik MP, was castigated recently for saying that a "security" register should be created of Hungarian MPs and civil servants who were of "Jewish origin". The Hungarian national football association, meanwhile, was recently fined after fans shouted anti-Semitic slogans during a recent World Cup qualifier.

And only last week, the leader of the Raoul Wallenberg Association, a charity named after a businessman who rescued many Jews from Nazi-occupied Hungary, was beaten up after telling skinhead thugs to stop chanting "Seig Heil" at a soccer match. "They called me a Jewish Communist," said Ferenc Orosz - who is actually a Protestant - in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph. "Anti-Semitism is definitely getting worse. Jobbik speaks about it openly in parliament, and when their supporters see that, they follow suit." True, while verbal abuse has apparently increased, incidents of actual violence are still relatively rare in Hungary: Mr Feldmajer recollects only around 50 physical attacks in 20 years. And it is fair to say that the bootboy image by no means fits all of Jobbik's supporters, many of whom are respectable working people whose motivations sound little different to the average UKIP supporter. The talk is of frustration with politically correct attitudes to crime and immigration, of children no longer being taught Hungarian history in schools properly, and of a loss of faith in mainstream political parties, whose economic record since communism's collapse is patchy at best.

Typical is Sipos Ibolya, 55, a cheerful schoolteacher who is Jobbik's deputy mayoress in Tiszavasvári. The twinning arrangement with Iran, she insists, is not borne of anti-semitism, but simple national self-interest. "Economically, the Israelis do have too much power in Hungary," she said. "But it's not that we're against Jews specifically. If German or Chinese firms became powerful here, we would be against that too." There was a similarly mixed picture at a Jobbik May Day fair last week, which combined elements of Glastonbury festival with a historical re-enactment society. In front of an open-air stage, burly men tattooed with skulls, crossbones and the odd swastika sat listening to bands play right-wing folk music, whose choruses of "we are all one blood" had them singing along. The sideshows, meanwhile, were devoted to displays of swordsmanship, archery and whipcracking, skill practised by the ancient Hungarian tribes whom many Jobbik supporters see as the country's true forefathers.

But what was billed as a day of harmless, Far-Right family fun also had its darker side. At least one book stall had Hitler's Mein Kampf on sale, and when it caught the attention of the Sunday Telegraph's photographer, a youth was overheard was overheard saying "What are these Jews doing here?" What alarms Hungarian liberals, though, is the way that under Mr Orban's government, such events have become part of the political mainstream. Songs by Far Right bands now do well in the charts, with one group, Carpatia, even receiving an official award, and last year, Hungary's state-funded New Theatre planned to stage a play about a group of powerful Jews who plot the country's downfall. Although it was eventually pulled after an outcry from anti-racism activists, it is hard to imagine such a production getting anywhere near a theatre in many other European countries. Nonetheless, after the trauma of the Holocaust, most of Hungary's remaining Jews have an all too well-developed sense of perspective about Jobbik. In the old Jewish quarter of Budapest, a maze of cobbled streets, synagogues and smart restaurants, few are planning to take to the streets to mount their counter-Jobbik protests.

For one thing, Jews here have learned the hard way to keep a low-profile, and for another, the feeling is that while anti-Semitism comes and goes, it never disappears entirely. "We do have occasional incidents, and Jews and Gypsies will always be scapegoats in society as long as it exists," said restaurateur Sallai Tunde, 45, whose family were spared Auschwitz by pretending to be Catholics. "But if you talk to those people in their 90s, who survived the camps, then you realise things are not that bad by comparison." On the streets with Hungary’s far-right – Channel 4 News Share on Twitter The far-right Jobbik party is hoping to become Hungary’s second biggest political party at next year’s elections but their manifesto is filled with vitriolic references to gypsies and Jews. Jobbik currently holds 43 seats in the Hungarian parliament and two in the European parliament. In Hungary it has become a legitimate political force – although its anti-Semitic message has raised concerns across the globe. The party is allied with the BNP through the Alliance of European National Movements, but is considerably more successful.

One key difference is its ties to vigilante militias – think English Defence League, but sober and in military uniforms. The nationalist militias descend on gypsy towns to intimidate and sow division – when banned, they simply re-form with new names and similar structures. At a Jobbik protest against “Zionism and communism” a few hundred metres from the World Jewish Congress, Channel 4 News watched Jobbik’s leader address a crowd containing uniformed members of the Magyar Nemzeti Garda and the more extreme Betyarsereg (Army of Outlaws). The groups took part in military-style drills, and members of Betyarsereg carried helmets and gas masks. The gathering went almost completely unopposed, with a very light police presence – in Hungary paramilitary-style far-right rallies have been normalised. Although he Jewish Congress is usually held in Jerusalem, it came to Budapest to draw attention to the rise of anti-Semitism and to send a message to Jobbik that they would not be intimidated. Jewish leaders told me that Prime Minister Victor Orban assured them he had dealt with the problem of militias Nevertheless, those who came to view the rally were shocked by what they saw.

At a training session for the Magyar Nemzeti Garda (Hungarian National Guard) militia, the group wore full military uniforms, displayed a clear military-style structure, but claimed it was not a violent organisation. It has taken part in distributing food and clothes to the homeless and given blood en masse to the Red Cross. Its leader, Joseph, laid out the group’s ideas to us: “We have a domestic problem that is the gypsy criminality and an external problem that is the Jew expansion.” When asked about the past suffering of Hungarian Jews, he replied: “If we want to remember victims, in my mind the holocaust is not the biggest tragedy. This has nothing to do with me. It doesn’t interest me. I don’t deny it, I’m just not interested.” Less than a century after Hungarian Jews were shot and their bodies dumped in the Danube by the Arrow Guard, fascist groups now openly wear the Arrow Guard logo, and statues of Hungarian nazi-Collaborator Miklós Horthy have been re-erected in parts of the country. The militias play an important role for Jobbik, as we learned in small town of Gyongyospata, where a Jobbik mayor is now in charge.

Tensions in the town exploded in 2011. Nationalists blamed the small Roma population for the suicide of a local, and thousands of black-shirted militia members arrived to patrol the streets. Jobbik held rallies outside the homes of gypsies and there were violent clashes. In the aftermath the village became a party stronghold. The Roma say they played no role in the man’s death, and even brought us to meet his son, who confirmed their side of the story. They said over 2,000 journalists have been to the town but never sought to clarify the truth behind Jobbik’s claim. The difference in the Roma side of town is astonishing: the roads are unpaved and homes are run-down. The difference in the Roma side of town is astonishing: the roads are unpaved and homes are run-down. The mayor says he is helping the Roma by providing work but many have already fled the town. Across Europe, far-right organisations have been enjoying increased success on the streets or in the ballot boxes. Greece’s Golden Dawn holds 18 seats in parliament and Bulgaria’s extremist Ataka have 23 seats. The deputy leader of Jobbik told Channel 4 News of his admiration for Ukip.

The parties have little in common but share their opposition to the EU, and both have made rapid gains off the issue. Unlike Ukip, Jobbik plans to strengthen its ties to places the near East and, more specifically, Iran. The town of Tiszavasvari, the “Jobbik capital” has been twinned with the Iranian city of Ardabil. The partnership has been called an “anti-Semitic alliance”. In Budapest, the real-world effects of the party’s extremist rhetoric is clear. A report prepared for the World Jewish Congress showed how spontaneous anti-Semitic attacks are growing. Jobbik told Channel 4 News it now wants the secret service to start investigating Jewish people involved in public life in the country. A simple shout goes up from one drunken reveller: ‘What are these Jews doing here?’ And then a glass of beer is poured over me. At the party’s May day festival, Nazi-tattoo-wearing skinheads rubbed shoulders with ordinary Hungarians. The crowd swells to over 7,000 people, all gathered under the Jobbik flag to watch rock bands and listen to speeches.

While shooting our report, a simple shout goes up from one drunken reveller: “What are these Jews doing here?” And then a glass of beer is poured over me. I’m slapped in the head and the crew is forced to leave. A small example of how speeches from a stage can translate into action on the ground. The worst violence came in 2009, though, when six gypsies were murdered in attacks involving guns, hand grenades and homemade explosives. Four nationalists currently remain on trial for these crimes. Meet The Far-Right Groups Who’ll Decide Europe’s Future May 30, 2014 Meet The Far-Right Groups Who’ll Decide Europe’s Future Leaders of far-right parties in Italy, Austria, France, and the Netherlands CREDIT: AP PHOTO/GEERT VANDEN WIJNGAERT By Ben Norton and Shannon Greenwood This week concluded the 2014 European elections, in which a wave of previously fringe, far-right political parties made significant gains in the European Parliament. These parties, all “eurosceptic” — opposed to membership in the European Union — although distinct, are unified in their racist, Islamophobic, and homophobic tendencies.

Nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment dominate their plans for a more exclusive Europe. The European Parliament (EP) is one governing body of the European Union, the only one directly elected by the people. The EP implements EU-wide legislation, so the success of these political parties in this year’s election will have significant impacts on Europe as a whole over the next five years — so long as they can come together and vote as a bloc. Some may have heard of Golden Dawn , a neo-Nazi party that openly admires Adolf Hitler that has been on the rise in the past few years in Greece, but here’s a guide to six far-right European political parties you might not have heard about. United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage, leader of UK Independence Party and newly re-elected MEP, center, surrounded by UKIP’s newly elected MEPs CREDIT: AP Photo/Sang Tan United Kingdom Independence Party, led by charismatic, far-right Nigel Farage, is a reflection of Britain’s increased euroscepticism. Many of its members, spearheaded by Farage, have taken a firm anti-immigration stance following the influx of Bulgarians and Romanians relocating to the UK following their entrance to the European Union in 2007.

Farage, whose wife is German, has been quoted as saying he would feel uncomfortable if a Romanian family moved in next door to him. When asked the difference it would make if the family was German, he replied , “I think you know the difference. We want an immigration policy that is not just based on controlling not just quantity, but quality.” Farage’s idea of “quality” has translated to overt racism in the UK, which has become so intolerable that the UK’s only Chinese-born parliamentarian, Anna Lo, announced she was quitting politics because of it, and rising-UKIP member Sanya-Jeet Thandi, a British-born Indian, left the party just weeks before the European elections for the same reason. In January of 2013, the Sunday Mirror posted excerpts from UKIP’s official online forum where some of its top officials compared the gay rights movement to pedophilia . “As for the links between homosexuality and paedophilia, there is so much evidence that even a full-length book could hardly do justice to the ­subject,” said Dr. Julia Gasper, a former, top-UKIP official who resigned after her comments were made public.

Despite UKIP’s anti-immigration, racist and homophobic views, the party secured 24 seats in this year’s European elections making them the top political party coming out of the UK. Front National National Front’s Marine Le Pen and founder Jean-Marie Le Pen CREDIT: AP Photo/Claude Paris The Front National (FN) took first place in France’s elections, with 25 percent of the electorate, and a whopping 24 seats in the European Parliament. Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the party in 1972, as a coalition of various French nationalist groups. Although the party shares the name of the French Resistance movement, a far-left organization led by members of the French Communist Party that resisted the Nazi occupation, it could hardly be any more different. The far-right contemporary FN has been widely characterized as racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic. Its founder has been accused on numerous occasions of anti-Semitism, and even Holocaust denial. He was convicted in 1987, 1999, and 2009 for “minimising the Holocaust,” describing Nazi concentration camps and gas chambers as “ what one calls a detail ” of history.

Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie, has devoted herself to doing damage control for the party’s image, ousting many of the parties more notorious members. She has even gone so far as to threaten to sue those who call the party “extreme right,” yet many are not convinced that her attempts are genuine, seeing them not as ideological changes, but mere cosmetic ones, to appeal to less conservative voters. In the London School of Economics and Political Science blog, Aurelien Mondon writes , in spite of its attempts to appear otherwise, “The French Front National is still an extreme right-wing party.” Mondon explains Le Pen has “made it increasingly clear that her moderate stance [is] little more than a façade.” He details several instances of the party engaging in overt racism, including calling people of color “monkey.” One can find “prevalence and public acceptance of crude racism beyond the elite of the party.” Their antipathy has been particularly directed at Muslims. Unifying virtually all of the parties in this list is an overt hatred for Muslims — or, more specifically, at those of Muslim cultures. FN’s hatred is particularly intense.

In July of last year, Le Pen likened Muslims praying to Nazis, saying “some people are very fond of talking about the Second World War and about the Occupation, so let’s talk about Occupation, because that is what is happening here. The Netherlands’ Party for Freedom Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom CREDIT: AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis The Netherlands’ far-right Party for Freedom did not do as favorably as it has in past elections in following the recent racist remarks of its leader Geert Wilders. While addressing voters in the Hague, Wilders asked , “Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?” When responded with chants of “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!”, Wilders told the crowd, “We’ll take care of that.” In the past, Wilders has likened the Qur’an to Mein Kampf and claimed “Islam threatens the whole world.” Dutch voters did not take kindly to Wilders’ comments, and the Party for Freedom lost two of its five seats in the Parliament after acquiring just 12.2 percent of the total vote in the Netherlands.

Freedom Party of Austria Heinz-Christian Strache head of Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party CREDIT: AP Photo/Ronald Zak Despite its blatant Islamophobia, The Freedom Party ended up doubling its seats in the European Parliament after this year’s elections after its third-place finish in Austria. Party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache was interviewed by The Telegraph where he defended his party’s stance by saying, “It is not about keeping Austria white, just about protecting its traditional community. We see Europe as a Christian, and we believe it’s at risk of Islamisation.” He also echoed fears similar to UKIP’s Farage saying, “I have heard that every second name in some schools in Britain will soon be Mohammed, rather than John or Paul. Do you want the residents of Britain to become a minority and to have English as a minority language in a school?” The party’s success may be attributed to the Hans Peter Martin List, another anti-EU party, not running in this year’s elections. In 2009, the party won more than 17 percent of the vote.

Jobbik Chairman of nationalist Jobbik, Gabor Vona CREDIT: AP Photo/MTI, Janos Marjai The Jobbik party in Hungary garnered 14.7 percent of votes cast (the same in the 2009 elections), and now boasts three MEPs. It is said the party is linked to Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party and the UK’s far-right British National Party. In a parliamentary debate in 2012, Jobbik deputy Marton Gyongyosi illustrated the party’s overt anti-Semitism by suggesting the government create a list “to see how many [citizens] are of Jewish origin and present a certain national security risk to Hungary.” The party has also called for the construction of detention camps for what it calls Roma “deviants.” Danish People’s Party Morten Messerschmidt, principal candidate for Danish People’s Party CREDIT: AP Photo/Polfoto, Peter Hove Olesen The Danish People’s Party (DPP), which previously had only two seats, now occupies four of Denmark’s 13 allocated seats in the European Parliament, with 26.7 percent of the vote.

According to The Party Program of the Danish People’s Party , as established October 2002, the party emphasizes a “need for a strong national defence, and secure and safe national borders,” stating it feels “a historic obligation to protect our country, its people and the Danish cultural heritage.” In spite of the frequency of use of the terms, the program tends to be somewhat ambiguous in regards to how exactly concepts like “Danish independence and freedom” are defined. The program does however explicitly state opposition to the European Union, while insisting Denmark should remain in NATO and the UN. It furthermore maintains that “Denmark’s constitutional monarchy must be preserved” and that the “Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church is the church of the Danish people.” As is common among right-wing groups, the DPP boasts a “tough on crime” policy, speaks of the family as “the heart” of society, and insists on the importance of preserving and strengthening its national heritage. The party takes this third position to its nationalist extreme, however, insisting that, in its own words, “Denmark is not an immigrant-country and never has been.

Thus we will not accept transformation to a multiethnic society.” The DPP has by no means shied away from engaging in racist stereotypes in its critique of immigration. DPP founder Pia Kjærsgaard told a critic , “If they want to turn Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö into a Scandinavian Beirut, with clan wars, honour killings and gang rapes, let them do it. We can always put a barrier on the Øresund Bridge.” In an effort to increase its legitimacy, the party has striven to distance itself from the French National Front and attempted to form an alliance with the UK’s Conservative Party, headed by Prime Minister David Cameron. DPP member of the European Parliament Morten Messerschmidt explained “We want as much influence as possible in order to pull Europe in another direction, namely in the British direction.” *** What is responsible for this surge in far-right politics? Most point to the widespread acceptance of austerity measures across the Eurozone, imposed in response to the 2008 economic crisis, that have only proven an absolute disaster , plunging European workers into even worse conditions. The European Commission’s own economist Jan in ’t Veld argued austerity made things significantly worse .

Unemployment has increased so greatly it has broken records , social spending has seen drastic cuts, and Eurozone debt hit its all-time high , even while economists like Paul Krugman warned “slashing spending in a depressed economy depresses the economy even more.” Overall, European voter turnout was estimated at about 43 percent of the population, evincing widespread disillusionment with the contemporary political climate, and, given the prominence of these parties in some of Europe’s largest countries, the fate of the EU looks grim. Although all of the above parties are eurosceptic, it should be noted that not all eurosceptic parties are technically right-wing. Some leftist parties criticize the EU for promoting what they see as anti-democratic, top-down, neoliberal policies, creating “free trade” agreements and zones that undermine local economies and facilitate exploitation by large, multinational corporations. Most eurosceptic parties, however, oppose the EU not for these reasons, but because they prefer nationalist, protectionist policies. Instead of uniting against austerity measures (although anti-austerity popular movements certainly have been active), many citizens have been attracted to this nationalist and protectionist politics, buying right-wing myths about immigrants “stealing” natives’ jobs.

The elementary economic fact that, by expelling fellow citizens, demand will decrease, and jobs will ergo be destroyed, appears to elude these parties. Progressives in the European Union do have some bright spots to look toward in the aftermath of this election, but the rise of the far-right remains a worrying trend for the continent.

Question: Jobbik is a far-right political party in which EC country?
Answer: Hungary