MP: "Jews should be listed"

Márton Gyöngyösi, an MP from the far-right Jobbik party concluded his parliamentary speech yesterday as follows:

"It is time to establish that <among> the people living here, and especially in the Parliament and the Government - how many people with Jewish origins are included given that they represent a certain risk for national security. I believe that you <i.e. the Government> owe such an assessment to Hungary."

The answer on behalf of the Government of Hungary was given by Zsolt Németh, state secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and was perceived by some as rather lukewarm:

"I cannot be supportive of this research. I believe that the question of how many Jews are there in the Hungarian Government is not really related to the severe conflict that is playing out in the Near-East" <NB the argument occured in the context of the Gaza conflict>. 

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Truth be told, both Gyöngyösi and his Jobbik party said later that the MP chose his words unwisely and he had intended to target, in fact, only holders of high offices with Israeli-Hungarian dual citizenships. Also the Government issued a clearer statement against such talks.

Still, some critics saw it as telling that even in such a clear case, the Government representative did not dare to offer a harder response (as would be standard against e.g. a Socialist Party MP in any given case) without the approval from above.

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P.S. Zsolt Németh is no-nobody. He a long-time member of Fidesz Party's inner core who has been responsble for the party's foreign affairs programme and implementation for ages. In fact he's seen by many as the true man in charge of Hungary's foreign affairs, rather than minister János Martonyi who has materially weaker Fidesz-affiliations.

Pp.S. Márton Gyöngyösi studied economics and political science in Dublin and Nürnberg. He worked as a tax advisor at KPMG before moving back to Hungary and entering politics.