Kurultay: Asian origins extolled

A right-wing columnist claims that Hungarians should be proud of their Asian origins, without however embracing the racist and homophobic rhetoric of the extreme right. Meanwhile, the leading left-wing daily accuses Fidesz of having integrated far-right Jobbik, and its rhetoric.

In Magyar Hírlap Gergely Huth writes Hungarians are „waking up” from the false identity imposed by on them by the left-liberal elite whom he describes as the last beneficiaries of the Kádár-regime, citing philosopher Ágnes Heller as an example. A new national consciousness is in the making, he claims, that does not shrink from being proud of a Central Asian ancestry. He praises anthropologist Zsolt András Bíró at whose initiative the annual „ tribal assembly” called Kurultay took place over the weekend, with colourful delegations from a dozen Asian nations. Huth finds it disturbing that the lead singer of the Kárpátia rock band was allowed to „spit” racist and homophobic slogans from the stage. (The radical nationalist rock band gained nationwide notoriety when its supporters attacked and damaged a small cultural agency that did not offer tickets to Kárpátia gigs.) He warns the organisers  that such „boorish” behaviour damages the „new national consciousness” that took so much effort and time to develop. “This unprecedented movement should not be poisoned by the most primitive current of Hungarian far-right extremism,” he concludes.

In its front page editorial, Népszabadság quotes Jobbik leader Gábor Vona’s pledge that he would be ready to join Fidesz in eliminating the socialist Party, and interprets this as a coalition offer. The author accuses Fidesz of branding MSZP an enemy of the nation, which rhymes well with the rhetoric of Jobbik. Vona himself has claimed that Jobbik was a catalyst in “the emergence of a new national consciousness”, but according to Népszabadság, things have gone further than that, for Fidesz has already incorporated Jobbik into “everything it is doing”.

Tags: far-right