Exhibition in Austria mocking Hungary’s far right is labelled “racist” by ambassador
The Hungarian Ambassador to Austria has called for the cancellation of a “racist” and “anti-Hungarian” art exhibition which opened yesterday in the Austrian city of Linz.
Thoughts Are Free, the exhibition by Roma artist Marika Schmiedt, features posters highlighting the plight of Roma people in Europe today. Several pieces draw parallels between the Nazis and Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, whose views on the country’s Roma population have been well documented. In one poster, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from the Fidesz party is pictured on the label of “Natural Smoked Gypsy Cooked Salami” next to a Jobbik logo.
Ambassador Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky labelled the exhibition: “a cheap provocation, openly racist and hostile against Hungary, and in violation of European values and the dignity of minorities, especially the Roma,” reported the Hungarian news agency MTI.
The Ambassador also took issue with it being located in Linz City Hall, stating that that the “socialist Linz city administration” will not back out of the “discrimination filled” project due to the artist’s political and ideological ties.
He contacted both Mayor Franz Dobuschs and Austrian President Heinz Fischer demanding that the exhibition be cancelled.
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