German ambassador summoned to Foreign Ministry

A pro-government analyst calls the German Cabinet Minister who said antisemitism was rampant in Hungary a serial detractor of Hungary while a liberal weekly regards the incident as a minor matter that should not be overblown.

In an interview with the Deutsche Telekom website, Germany’s Minister of State for EU Affairs Michael Roth said Hungary and Poland were still democracies, but EU sanctions would be justified on account of rule of law problems. Among these he mentioned  “rampant antisemitism” in Hungary. Mr Roth admitted that in Germany attacks on Jewish people are on the rise. The Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador and told him that the statement on rampant anti-semitism in Hungary was totally unfounded.

Magyar Hírlap quotes Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Levente Magyar as saying that Mr Roth is a ‘fanatic standard bearer’ of an ‘anti-Hungarian group’ within the German government.  No matter how good bilateral relations are, he said, such an absurd accusation crossed a red line.

In a debate on HÍR TV, political analyst Levente Bánk Boross said Mr Roth has brought unsubstantiated charges against Hungary several times in the past, but this time he has played ‘the antisemitism card’ which is absolutely inappropriate in today’s Hungary. His partner in the debate, former liberal MP Gábor Horn said antisemitism is not absent from everyday life in Hungary, but Jewish people are not under threat.

HVG online believes such passing remarks do not warrant the decision to summon the German ambassador to the Foreign Ministry. Former (Socialist) Foreign Minister Péter Balázs told HVG that his successors summon ambassadors too often. He deems this incident as too insignificant to trigger such a protest on the part of the Hungarian government. HVG believes the government is simply pursuing propaganda aims when it summons foreign diplomats.

Tags: anti-Semitism, diplomacy, Germany