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Hungary's main right-wing political party, Fidesz, was slow to criticize the Hungarian Guard. Fidesz is the largest opposition party in parliament and could well win the next elections. Some analysts believe the party is quietly sustaining the guard as a way to hold on to voters.
"They are playing with fire," said Judit Lakner, a prominent Hungarian writer who edits a cultural magazine for Centropa, an institute that documents Jewish history in Central Europe.
Disaffected nationalism "is a menace throughout Europe," she added. "Those who feel they are being left behind are vulnerable to left- or right-wing manipulation. The rightist movement is every year stronger and stronger."
U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Burlingame), a Budapest-born Holocaust survivor who died Monday, introduced a bill in Congress to bar entry into the United States of any member of the Hungarian Guard, whose members he called "crazy fanatics."
Threat to Gypsies
The guard may pose an even greater threat to minorities such as the Gypsies, or Roma, who face fierce discrimination and hatred throughout Europe. Gypsies probably constitute about 6% of Hungary's population and are its poorest minority.
Involvement by Roma in robberies and assaults has further alienated other Hungarians and given extremists fodder for rallying support. Members of the Hungarian Guard led a rally last month portrayed as a protest against crime but seen as a largely anti-Gypsy demonstration.
"They are turning away from Jews as targets, to Gypsies," said Krisztian Szabados, director of Budapest's Political Capital Institute, a think tank. "That is how they can grow, and my fear is it could turn violent."
The guard is also exploiting other time-honored issues in Hungary, including its loss early in the 20th century of two-thirds of its territory, leaving hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians inside the borders of other countries. This has been an emotional issue for generations of Hungarians.
It is not yet clear what impact the Hungarian Guard will have on national politics, and there is no indication it has attempted to join forces with paramilitary groups in neighboring countries.
But domestic and international condemnation has been fierce, and a Hungarian court is considering a petition to disband the guard.
"It was very frightening to see them, there, in their uniforms," recalled Ferenc Marczali, 25, a graduate student in English at one of Budapest's main universities. "At first I thought, 600 of them, it's not too many. Then I thought, 600 of them, that's a lot!
"I can't decide how afraid I have to be."
wilkinson@latimes.com
"They are playing with fire," said Judit Lakner, a prominent Hungarian writer who edits a cultural magazine for Centropa, an institute that documents Jewish history in Central Europe.
Disaffected nationalism "is a menace throughout Europe," she added. "Those who feel they are being left behind are vulnerable to left- or right-wing manipulation. The rightist movement is every year stronger and stronger."
U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Burlingame), a Budapest-born Holocaust survivor who died Monday, introduced a bill in Congress to bar entry into the United States of any member of the Hungarian Guard, whose members he called "crazy fanatics."
Threat to Gypsies
The guard may pose an even greater threat to minorities such as the Gypsies, or Roma, who face fierce discrimination and hatred throughout Europe. Gypsies probably constitute about 6% of Hungary's population and are its poorest minority.
Involvement by Roma in robberies and assaults has further alienated other Hungarians and given extremists fodder for rallying support. Members of the Hungarian Guard led a rally last month portrayed as a protest against crime but seen as a largely anti-Gypsy demonstration.
"They are turning away from Jews as targets, to Gypsies," said Krisztian Szabados, director of Budapest's Political Capital Institute, a think tank. "That is how they can grow, and my fear is it could turn violent."
The guard is also exploiting other time-honored issues in Hungary, including its loss early in the 20th century of two-thirds of its territory, leaving hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians inside the borders of other countries. This has been an emotional issue for generations of Hungarians.
It is not yet clear what impact the Hungarian Guard will have on national politics, and there is no indication it has attempted to join forces with paramilitary groups in neighboring countries.
But domestic and international condemnation has been fierce, and a Hungarian court is considering a petition to disband the guard.
"It was very frightening to see them, there, in their uniforms," recalled Ferenc Marczali, 25, a graduate student in English at one of Budapest's main universities. "At first I thought, 600 of them, it's not too many. Then I thought, 600 of them, that's a lot!
"I can't decide how afraid I have to be."
wilkinson@latimes.com
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