Commentators unanimously condemn a speech by Jobbik MP Márton Gyöngyösi, who proposed a “survey of MPs and cabinet members of Jewish descent who represent a risk to national security”. READ MORE
A pro-government columnist vehemently criticizes MSZP leader Mesterházy for labeling the Hungarian government fascist, in a left-wing Italian daily. A left-wing commentator notes that conservative dailies have also warned of undemocratic tendencies in Hungary. READ MORE
A leading conservative columnist condemns the football hooligans who chanted anti-Semitic slogans before and during a friendly football match between Hungary and Israel, but thinks the incident would have remained unnoticed if certain people were not interested in discrediting Hungary. READ MORE
Historians’ polemic
In Élet és Irodalom, Eszter Babarczy argues that anti-Semitism became a political factor two decades ago, when liberals and socialists first raised the charge against their conservative opponents. READ MORE
Commentators on both the left and right agree that recent scandals affecting Jobbik indicate grave conflicts and deep rifts within the far-right party. Analysts contend that this could foreshadow either its split or decline . READ MORE
A left-wing commentator doubts whether anyone within Jobbik will learn anything from the story of their MEP who turned out to be of Jewish descent. A right-wing pundit finds the spectacle of MEP Csanád Szegedi trying to bribe the man who blackmailed him with the ethnicity of his ancestors, abhorrent. READ MORE
Columnists from across the political spectrum criticise a Socialist MP for likening the Orbán government’s new policies on the disabled to the practices of Josef Mengele, the ill-famed Nazi doctor who stood at the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp choosing which of the deportees were fit for slave labour and which should be sent to the gas chambers as “unfit”. READ MORE
Commenting on an exchange of letters between US congressmen and Viktor Orbán on anti-Semitism in Hungary, a pro-government columnist says Fidesz is a victim of anti-Semitic attacks, and is fighting anti-Semitism. The commentator in the largest left wing daily , however, says that if the government really wanted to block anti-Semitic content, it should turn to Internet Service Providers, instead of asking US congressmen to act. READ MORE
Right and left accuse each other of acting in bad faith in connection with the government-sponsored, but failed reburial of Transylvanian writer József Nyírő. A liberal analyst believes both sides need enemies in order to mobilise their own troops. READ MORE
Left-wing commentators poke fun at Jobbik MEP Csanád Szegedi who has turned out to have Jewish ancestry. Far right bloggers urge him to withdraw from politics. Jobbik chairman Gábor Vona says the case proves that his party is not racist. READ MORE