Another Hungarian statue triggers protests

In Budapest, a group of protesters disrupted the unveiling of a statue to honor György Donath, a World War II-era Hungarian politician. 

The protesters, who shouted and played loud music, prevented former conservative Prime Minister Peter Boross and Gergely Gülyas, a deputy chairman of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party, from addressing the crowd at the unveiling of the statue, which was erected by an association of former political prisoners.

The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) said that Donath's anti-Semitic views and his role during World War II and the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in 1944 meant he was unworthy of the statue. The monument is to be erected nearby the Holocaust Memorial Center in Hungary's capital.

Donath was a member of parliament between 1939 and 1944 and founded a right-wing party which promoted the exclusion of Jews from important roles in public life. He was executed by the post-war Communist regime on trumped-up charges in 1947.

"The disgraceful political role of György Donath cannot be ignored even if he became victim of Communism in a show trial in which he was sentenced to death," Mazsihisz said in a statement.

Gülyas and Boross left the scene after protesters held up banners saying "We don't want racists" and "Those who celebrate racists are racists themselves," the 'Reuters' news agency reports.

In December, Hungary scrapped plans to erect a statue of Balint Homan, a World War II-era government minister who supported anti-Semitism in Hungary in the 1930s and 40s, following protests from Jewish leaders, including the World Jewish Congress, and the US State Department.