The Capital City Court found that László Karsai violated Jobbik’s right to the protection of reputation as in a TV show called the party neo-Nazi. According to the verdict the historian – beside the payment of legal costs and fees amounting to a total of 66 thousand forints – is bound to express regret in a private letter within fifteen days, which may be made public by Jobbik.
However in our opinion the party, which
would limit the number of the gipsy population
revives the blood accusation of Tiszaeszlár
would create a list of Jewish politicians in Hungary
cast off members with jewish ancestry
president declares that he would withdraw from politics in case of his ancestors would be proven similar
this party is a neo-Nazi party.
A detailed account of the story:
Jobbik is not a neo-Nazi party.
At least not according to a Hungarian judge
First, before I recount the encounter of László Karsai with Jobbik, I should perhaps refresh your memory of the man. He is best known as a historian of the Hungarian Holocaust, but his field of competence is much broader. He even wrote a book about the nationality question in France and another on the Flemish and the Walloons in Belgium. He studied the question of the Hungarian Gypsies between 1919 and 1945. If readers of Hungarian Spectrum know his name it may be because I wrote about a controversy that erupted as a result of his refusal to attend a conference in Norway on Raoul Wallenberg. Karsai was one of the invited guests, but he backed out after he learned that Géza Jeszenszky, Hungarian ambassador to Norway, was one of the sponsors. Géza Jeszenszky wrote a university textbook on national minorities in East-Central Europe, and his chapter on the Gypsies was full of inaccuracies and reeked of prejudice.
Karsai can be controversial. For example, at the moment he is working on a biography of Ferenc Szálasi, the founder of the extreme right-wing Arrow Cross party. He discovered a number of new documents that prove that the generally accepted scholarly opinion of Szálasi might not be accurate. Especially with respect to Szálasi’s views on the Hungarian Jewry. On the other hand, he is convinced that Miklós Horthy knew more about the death camps than he later claimed. So, he does what a good historian should do: he tries to seek the truth even if it might not please some people.