Hungarian Guard prevents Roma from attending Jobbik party meetings

The TASR Agency reports that uniformed members of the banned Hungarian Guard have prevented about 10 local Roma from attending a meeting of the neo-fascist Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) in the northern town of Hajdúhadháze.

The MTI Agency reports that Zsolt Bátor Lakatos, head of a local Roma organization, said the Roma wanted to inform themselves as to Jobbik’s ideas for addressing municipalities where a high proportion of the residents are Roma. Hungarian MEP Csanád Szegedi (Jobbik) was scheduled to speak.

Lakatos said the uniformed men would not let the Roma attend the event and told them “Gypsies cannot get in”. Posters advertising the forum said it was open to the public, but the Guardists said it was not a public meeting.

Roma attempting to attend a Jobbik meeting in the town of Hajdúböszörményi received similar treatment. The Roma have informed their local elections office of the incidents.

Dóra Dúró, spokesperson for Jobbik, told the news server origo.hu that “nothing of the sort occurred” and claimed MEP Szegedi had told her the Roma attended the event. According to him, the Guardists were there in new uniforms and police officers were also present. “If someone determined the law was being broken, he could have asked the police for help,” the TASR Agency quotes Szegedi as saying.