Far-right Jobbik party baits Jews in Hungarian election campaign
ESZTERGOM, Hungary (Reuters) - To launch its campaign for Hungary's parliamentary election, the far-right Jobbik party, accused by critics of anti-Semitism, chose as its venue a former synagogue with a plaque on the wall commemorating 500 local Jews killed in the Holocaust.
The reaction was unsurprising: opponents turned up outside the synagogue in the city of Esztergom to protest at Jobbik's presence, they heckled party leader Gabor Vona as he arrived, and the confrontation was broadcast on the evening news.
It was seen as another publicity coup for Jobbik on its path to entrenching itself on Europe's political landscape, and for not much more than the $50 hourly cost of renting the former synagogue, now a municipal community centre.
When Jobbik shocked Europe four years ago by coming third in Hungary's parliamentary election, many of its opponents predicted the party would soon implode.
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Insiders say the party has close ties with kuruc.info, a website which has sections entitled "Jewish crime", "Gypsy crime" and "Holokamu", a pun on the words for Holocaust and lie, meant to denote that the Holocaust was fiction. It also carries election ads for Jobbik. The party denies ties to the website.
At a January rally in eastern Hungary, Jobbik parliamentary candidate Tibor Agoston used the phrase "Holokamu" in a joke about events planned to mark the anniversary of the Holocaust. He is still a candidate.
At the synagogue rally in Esztergom, a Reuters reporter saw representatives of a group called Betyarsereg (Army of Outlaws) providing security for the gathering. The group supports the Nazi notion of "Lebensraum," or living space for favored races. It said on its website that Jobbik had asked it to take care of security at the synagogue.
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