The Hungarian Government welcomes the World Jewish Congress’s session in Budapest, and hopes that a personal encounter will help the organization’s members assess concerns regarding the country themselves, Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said.

In a commentary published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 2 May 2013, Minister Martonyi said that WJC President Ronald S. Lauder had criticized Hungarian politics and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in an article published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in April.

Lauder had said that anti-Semitic and anti-Roma manifestations had dramatically increased since the change of government in Hungary in 2010, that pressure had mounted on the independent media and that the fourth constitutional amendment had endangered democratic institutions.

Martonyi said it was important that members of the WJC from as many countries as possible should gain a first hand view of the situation of the Jewish community in Hungary and see if concerns and generalisations were justified.

Hungary has one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe and a Jewish religious and cultural renaissance is currently being experienced, especially in Budapest -- Martonyi told the paper. At the same time, „unfortunately there are also anti-Semites”, some of whom „propagate their outrageous beliefs on the streets”.

Martonyi said that far-right movements had gained strength under Hungary’s previous Socialist governments and this „heritage had indeed caused the emergence of worrying manifestations”. The Government should now act to help the far right „find its way back to a moderate democratic community,” he said. The Minister added, however, that without diminishing the importance of individual cases of anti-Semitism, European statistics on crimes with racist motivations should be taken into consideration to acquire the right perspective on the Hungarian situation.

Martonyi noted that the Orbán Government had enacted legislation to prevent far right uniformed marches and intimidation, including the much-criticized fourth constitutional amendment, which widened the scope of legal sanctions against racist and anti-Semitic manifestations.

The Minister added that, despite pessimistic prognoses  triggered by the new Media Law, criticism of the Hungarian Government is still „visible and audible everywhere”. He also noted that Parliament had amended the laws criticized by the European organizations.

Martonyi said that the Government aims to restore social cohesion while abiding by its 2011 pledge to universal European values.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)