Hungary’s government has declared policy of zero tolerance for anti-Semitism

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó reassured the Israeli ambassador to Hungary that the government has declared a policy of zero tolerance for anti-Semitism in a telephone conservation on Saturday.

Szijjártó told MTI he had told Ambassador Yossi Amrani that the activities of Miklós Horthy as governor included both positive and extremely negative periods.

Late in June, at the ceremonial opening of the renovated Klebelsberg castle in Budapest Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the “second and third decades of the twentieth century were seriously trying times” in Hungarian history and it was thanks to statesmen like governor Miklós Horthy, one-time prime minister István Bethlen and Kuno Klebelsberg, who served as interior minister and culture minister during the period, that Hungary “had not got buried under history” after losing the first world war, experiencing the Red Terror under the Hungarian Soviet Republic and the signing of the WWI Trianon peace treaty.

Several Jewish organisations raised objections in connection with the speech, including the Jewish World Congress and its leader Ronald S. Lauder.

“History must be respected, and the historical facts indicate that the activities of Horthy as governor included both positive and extremely negative periods,” Szijjártó said. An “undoubtedly positive” moment in Horthy’s career was putting Hungary back on its feet after WWI, he explained.

“However, it is extremely negative and belongs in the category of historical sin that despite his oath he did not protect Hungary’s Jews, who were part of the Hungarian nation. It belongs in the category of historical sin that laws which discriminated against Jews were introduced during his time in office, and that hundreds of thousands of Jews fell victim to the Holocaust,” he added.