Nazism on The Rise In Hungary — Hungary Seeking Bailout

Many countries in Europe and elsewhere are seeing extremism on the rise, and this is one trend we've been forecasting on this blog for quite some time: the Greater Depression has the potential to bring extremists back in power, and most probably wars will be on the only way forward, unfortunately.

Here's a Bloomberg report about Hungary which summarizes nicely my points of view:

(Bloomberg) June 14, 2012 — Hungary has a new hero. Towns and villages are putting up statues and naming streets after Miklos Horthy, a former head of state who led the country into World War II on Adolf Hitler’s side. 

The base for a Horthy statue is already standing in Csokako, population 1,383, a village dotted with small vineyards an hour’s drive west of Budapest. The sculpture will be unveiled on June 16 in a park below the ruins of a 13th-century fort. 

From such hamlets to the halls of the neo-Gothic Parliament in Budapest, where the nationalist Jobbik is the second-largest opposition party, radicalism and its symbols are spreading as Hungary heads into its second recession in four years. Prime Minister Viktor Orban is seeking to obtain an international bailout after Hungary’s debt was downgraded to junk last year. 

“Where there are economic problems, there are tensions between peoples and groups,” said Gabor Bognar, 47, Csokako’s deputy mayor. “If we don’t allow people to let their steam out by erecting a statue, then they’re not going to stop there.” 

Nationalists are making gains across Europe as leaders struggle to avert prolonged economic turmoil. What’s different in Hungary is that Orban is accused by Jewish groups and political analysts of including parts of the radical agenda in his own policies, a charge the government denies. Orban, 49, has condemned a flurry of anti-Semitic attacks in the past month, which the Jewish group Mazsihisz has called a “tide of hatred inundating Hungary.”

The government expanded the reading curriculum for schools last month to include books by Jozsef Nyiro, a member of Parliament during World War II. He also was an ally of Ferenc Szalasi, a former head of the fascist Arrow Cross party who was executed for war crimes. More than 500,000 Hungarians, mostly Jews, were killed in the Holocaust, according to the Budapest- based Holocaust Memorial Center. 

[...] “That the current government is openly associating itself with the ideology of the regime that collaborated with the fascists is unique in Europe,” Attila Mesterhazy, president of the Socialist Party, the largest opposition group, said in a June 2 statement. “That it’s trying to force this kind of thinking on the nation is inexcusable.” 

[...] “Fidesz senses that Jobbik is a serious rival and is trying to take the wind out of its sails by taking over parts of its agenda,” Juhasz said. “The problem is all this is doing is strengthening the extremist ideology on which Jobbik thrives.” 

[...] Hungary restricted university access for Jews in 1920 during Horthy’s first year in power, making it the first country in Europe to pass an anti-Semitic law after World War I, according to the Holocaust center. Horthy resigned 24 years later, in October 1944, when the country was under Nazi occupation. About 437,000 Hungarians had been sent to death camps between May and July of that year.
[...] “There is confusion in people’s minds and there’s also hate, and our democracy doesn’t seem to be able to handle this,” Lanczi said. “It’s a dilemma: Can we tolerate intolerance?”