HUNGARY | “We are not democrats” – Vona

Monday, 6 February 2012, 13:37

Gábor Vona

Gábor Vona, the leader of Hungary’s fascist Jobbik party, has publicly admitted his party is not democratic. “We are not communists, we not fascists, we are not national socialists but we are not democrats either,” he told a party gathering, attended by several thousand members, on 5 February. The economic crisis is a crisis of liberal democracy, he said, that “would lead to armed conflict within two decades” and Jobbik must increase Hungarian society’s ability to defend, organise and support itself. The right-wing extremist boss also told the assembled mob that Jobbik’s ideas were now dominant on the right in Hungary, and that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party was “raising the tree planted by Jobbik”. Hungary’s future lies not in the European Union – withdrawal from which should be the subject of a referendum – but in forging closer ties with the east, Vona said, citing Russia and Turkey. Last week, he told TV viewers that his party wants “constitutional rule based on the doctrine of the Holy Crown”. Jobbik won 17% of the vote in 2010 general elections, with the formerly ruling Socialists only narrowly beating them to the position of largest opposition party.