Jobbik’s mixed ‘guard day’ score sheet

Jobbik leader Gábor Vona declared victory over the Minister of the Interior after a successful game of hide-and-seek with the police on the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian Guard.

On Saturday, August 25, Jobbik and a number of extremist organisations celebrated the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian Guard. This was originally the paramilitary (uniformed, but unarmed) organization of Jobbik, banned by the Fidesz-led government, which has since split and reappeared in several new guises. One of these, the “New Hungarian Guard” organised a ceremony to swear in 130 new recruits and 10 “gendarmes” – specially trained guardsmen. Jobbik leaders misled the police in tapped phone conversations to believe that the ceremony would take place in Csókakő (Fejér County). Six hundred policemen sealed off the village in order to prevent the event from taking place. The ceremony was eventually held undisturbed a hundred kilometres away, near Dunaföldvár.

On his Facebook page, Jobbik leader Gábor Vona demands the resignation of Interior Minister Sándor Pintér. In contrast to the “shame” that fell upon the police at Csókakő, he calls his own feat in the woods near Dunaföldvár, “a triumph”.

In Népszabadság, Gábor Czene agrees that the police underperformed pathetically on Saturday: instead of mounting a show of strength as planned, they exposed themselves to ridicule. Nevertheless, he also believes Jobbik’s anniversary ceremony, held in Budapest, was a failure. Billed as the main event of the day, at which Jobbik would prove to the world that it has overcome its internal crisis and reasserted it’s credentials as enjoying the support of the far right as a whole, the rally was only attended by a few hundred people. Czene regrets that the police blunder at Csókakő diverted public attention from Jobbik’s poor performance in central Budapest on the same day.

Tags: Jobbik