In Hungary, a group of 100 intellectuals has condemned a ‘libelous attack’ against Jewish journalists in a major newspaper. The condemnation was made in an open letter to Gábor Széles, the publisher of the daily ‘Magyar Hírlap’ paper. Budapest’s mayor, Gábor Demszky, cancelled his subscription to the paper and said he would not grant them any further interviews.
The letter of protest focuses on the invective of one columnist, Zsolt Bayer, who has promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. He recently wrote that “in 1967 the Budapest Jewish journalists still maligned Israel. These same Budapest Jewish journalists today are maligning the Arabs. And the Fidesz. And us. Because they hate us more than we hate them." Fidesz is the main opposition party led by former prime minister Viktor Orban.
Bayer and the paper have broken a taboo that has existed since the end of World War II, the intellectuals wrote. They compared Bayer's statements to far-right propaganda of the 1930s and 1940s, and suggested the paper should not print his columns any more. Commenting in the liberal ‘Népszabadság’ newspaper, author and literary critic György Vári said he had doubts the protest would have any effect. Vári said there was not enough of a consensus against anti-Semitism in Hungary.
