Hungarian Police suppress extreme-right patrols

The Hungarian Police have suppressed patrols being performed by extreme-right militias (previously called the National Guard) in the eastern areas of the country that are close to the extreme nationalist Jobbik party. Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér made the announcement on Friday. “They will not take place any longer,” news agency MTI quoted him as saying.

“I want to assure you that these kinds of patrols, which are hiding behind a front of alleged legality, will no longer take place,” Pintér told journalists in Budapest. He was referring to patrols organized by circles close to the Jobbik party which have recently been sowing fear in the Roma community. “I am glad to announce that the Association for a Better Future [the name of the militia], which started patrolling on Tuesday, has been instructed by police to halt its activity,” the minister said.

Hungarian MP Gergely Rubi (Jobbik) said the 200 militia members had only traveled to the town of Hajdúhadház (population 12 000) to draw attention to problems there. “There will not be any marches or similar actions. We will peacefully stand in pairs at the crosswalks,” Rubi assured reporters on Friday.

Last month as many as 2 000 militiamen patrolled the streets of the small village of Gyöngyöspata in the northeast of the country. Dressed in paramilitary uniforms, the militia’s aim was to “renew order”, which in their view no longer exists because of Roma people.

Last Wednesday, Hungarian MP László Tasó of the governing Fidesz party demanded the militias leave the town and called their action an arbitrary provocation. “Those Jobbik party soldiers are wearing clothing that is almost identical to that of the banned National Guard, which is a clear sign that they want to disseminate fear… They don’t want to renew order, they want to create the atmosphere of a civil war,” Tasó emphasized.