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Profile of the parliamentary extreme-Right

By Liz Fekete

1 March 1999

The new centre-Right coalition government, led by the Fidesz party, has refused to except any support from the extreme-Right Hungarian Justice and Life Party (HJLP) and opposition parliamentary parties have refused offers of coooperation.

Following a legal battle, the HJLP has won the right to form its own independent parliamentary group.

The Hungarian Justice and Life Party

Until the May parliamentary elections, Hungary was one of the few east-European countries where the extreme-Right did not sit in parliament. But in May, the HJLP (which in 1994 only polled a meagre 1.5 per cent of the national vote) gained 5.47 per cent of the vote (around 250000 votes). This allowed the party to send 14 deputies into parliament from the regional and national lists, representing 3.63 per cent of the total seats in the House. In Budapest and Pest County, HJLP received 10 per cent of the votes, which is a signal that apart from the traditional low-income supporters, an increasing number of young people and white collar workers sympathise with the party. The fourteen MPs are mainly intellectuals from various fields such as economics, engineering, medicine and arts. Five are professors in higher education and the rest are theologians, lawyers, entrepreneurs and farmers.

HJLP currently has some 300 grassroot organisations and about 8000 members. Its success in the general election, was aided by tumultuous campaigning, primarily carried out through the 50000 copy Csurka-founded weekly, Magyar Fórum, a national network of the radical civil organisation Hungarian Way and a number of mass rallies routinely mobilising thousands of people.

One of the first parliamentary acts of the HJLP was to stage a legal battle to win the right to form its own independent parliamentary group. When the House ruled that a party must have a minimum of fifteen representatives to form its own parliamentary group, the HJLP challenged the House in the Constitutional Court. The Court overruled Parliament's in-house regulation, stating that once a party achieves the 5 per cent threshold, it must be allowed to form its own group in Parliament.

Anti-Semitism and István Csurka

István Csurka, a writer known in literary circles for his anti-Semitism, was one of the founders of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, which governed Hungary between 1990 and '94. Deputy chairman of the Democratic Forum until '93, Csurka was expelled after he drew up an anti-Semitic manifesto which demanded more 'Hungarian lebensraum'. Following his expulsion he formed the 'Hungarian Way', which later became the HJLP.

HJLP's political platform is very much under Csurka's control. The man who first gained popularity with plays written in the satirico-critical vein under Kádár's Communist rule is described by political analyst Lásló Lengyel as someone whose vision is based on a criticism of morals, mentality and culture. The hub of his frame of reference is the concept of the Hungarian nation, mentality, traditions and customs which he thinks are gradually being eroded by alien cultures through military, political, economic and moral oppression - previously Bolshevism, now American-style global consumerism. On the cultural scene, the party presses for 'genuine information to the public', a culture of the 'Hungarian spirit' and education in 'Christian morals'.

In his writings, Csurka expresses the view that the assimilation of Hungarian Jewry is dangerous because the assimilating intellectual and economic elite surreptitiously grafts a 'non-Hungarian' mentality onto the Hungarian national character for its own benefit and to the detriment of the Hungarian people. His conclusion is that the elite of Jewish descent, which has been in power in Hungary since 1945, is now regaining its grip over society through a leftist-liberal philosophy and the support of the international financial community and multinational companies.

HJLP economic and foreign policy

According to Csurka, twentieth century Hungary is a vulnerable 'small nation' which suffered an outrageous injustice at Versailles after the first world war. Though he never explicitly argues for a redrawing of borders, Csurka has never ruled out this option. Since its formation, the HJLP has protested Hungary's accession to NATO and the EU, though it lately acquiesced to NATO accession as a fait accompli. It is a staunch advocate of the rights of ethnic Hungarians, including autonomy, and calls for government support to help the assertion of these rights. The updated version of HJLP's programme urges the revision of privatisation contracts, the consolidation of banks and of the internal fiscal deficit. The party also calls for additional taxes on large properties, and investigations into alleged financial fraud. HJLP's fiscal policy favours small and medium-size companies and guards small incomes from inflation.

MTI English Press Service 34-33/1998, Taz 26.5.98

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