Viktor Orbán vows ‘zero tolerance’ for anti-Semitism

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán confirmed his government’s position of “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitic expressions, in an interview published by Israel Hayom daily on Friday.

“We will never tolerate any kind of anti-Semitic approach to issues,” Orbán said in his interview published in English and Hebrew.

The prime minister told the paper that both Hungary’s Right and the country’s Jewish community should work on building mutual trust due their relationship that is complicated because of historical reasons. The situation is made even more complicated by the “communists and the Left regularly using accusations of anti-Semitism against those who are not anti-Semitic”, Orbán said, and called it “unfair”.

In the Hebrew version, the paper quoted Orbán as referring to Miklós Horthy, Hungary’s regent in the interwar era, as an anti-Semite, leading a political elite which passed laws discriminating people by their race. It was a crime, Orbán said, but added that Horthy has “saved the country” after the first world war, and insisted that “neither of those facts can be denied”.

Referring to a recent visit by the Israeli prime minister to Hungary, Orbán spoke highly of his ties to Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that Netanyahu’s visit has elevated their relationship to a “new and more personal level”.

Concerning Israel, Orbán said that its policy of rapprochement to the moderate Arab states was in the interest of the European Union, which could contribute to efforts against the migration threat Europe is facing.

Source: MTI