The EU’s demonisation of Hungary has reached the point when even the most innocent and well-intentioned initiatives of Hungarian lawmakers are now presented by Brussels as stained by far-right extremism or racism, Spiked Ltd reports.
Last week, a group of Hungarian MEPs sent an email to their counterparts in the European Parliament on organising a conference in Strasbourg on “combating anti-Semitism through education.” The conference, which took place this week, was designed to bring together experts, politicians, community leaders, and European and Israeli policy makers to “explore successful initiatives that have effectively tackled anti-Semitism through school education.”
EU politicians were expected to take a keen interest in combating the growing hatred of Jews against the backdrop of burgeoning anti-Semitism in Western Europe. However, three MEPs, Denmark’s Karen Melchior and Margrete Auken, as well as Spain’s Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, decided to criticise the initiative instead.
Responding to an email from Hungary, they stated finding “invitation extremely confusing, and even harder to consider credible,” given Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “poor track record in actually fighting anti-Semitism in his own country.” Afterwards, they published the email with the help of Politico entitled Hungary Circus.
This is not the first case of Hungary being accused of anti-Semitism. Just last week, the Guardian published an article entitled “Hungarian government campaign renews anti-Semitism concerns.”
It referred to a billboard campaign launched in Hungary last week featuring Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Alex Soros, son of George Soros and current chair of the Open Society Foundations, an international non-governmental organisation. The campaign aims to draw attention to the growing tendency of the EU and a small army of international NGOs to interfere in Hungary’s internal affairs.
Let’s not dance to their tune.
The accusations of anti-Semitism levelled against Hungary seem particularly groundless against the background of an active display of solidarity with Israel. Following the Hamas attack on October 7, a large rally against anti-Semitism was held in Budapest.
The Hungarian government has also gone much further than many of its European neighbours in supporting Israel: it has welcomed Israeli and Jewish refugees. Orbán also invited the Israeli football team to train and play their home games in Hungary for the duration of the Gaza war.
The conference organised by Hungarian MEPs in Strasbourg was therefore far from being a “circus,” but a genuine attempt to make Hungary a safer place for Jews.
Although Hungary is often accused of anti-Semitism, it is one of the few EU countries that has spoken out against the growing trend to ban kosher slaughter in Europe. Orbán was the first Hungarian prime minister to publicly acknowledge Hungary’s complicity in the Holocaust, apologising for failing to “protect its Jewish citizens.”
In November 2020, Slomó Köves, chief rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation, declared that Hungary was probably the safest country in Europe for Jews. Even now, as anti-Semitism erupts in the streets of Western European capitals, the atmosphere in Hungary remains extremely friendly toward Jews.
However, it seems that the desire of EU elites to demonise Hungary is much more important to them than actually solving the problem of anti-Semitism in Europe.
