The city council of Budapest has thrown out an earlier decree to name a street in upmarket district 2 after Cecile Tormay, a controversial early-20th century author.
At a meeting on Tuesday, the municipal council decided not to change any place names in Budapest before the next local elections.
Budapest mayor Istvan Tarlos said that disputes over place name changes “have become too sharp” and no opportunity should be provided for anyone to use possible further changes for political purposes.
The council of Budapest decided in May that a street should be named after Tormay in district 2. The opposition Socialists and several organisations, including the Hungarian Jewish federation Mazsihisz and the World Jewish Congress (WJC), protested against the decision.
Mazsihisz asked Tarlos to withdraw the naming decree and referred to Tormay as “openly anti-Semitic”. The federation expressed “shock” that on the 75th anniversary of the first anti-Jewish laws, the district was celebrating such a personality. Ronald S. Lauder, the head of the WJC, also expressed his “shock”.
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