Jobbik is proof that it’s impossible to close Britain’s borders to bigotry

As Hungary’s far right party starts campaigning in Britain, it’s a sign that free movement of people means free movement of politics.

We know what organised British racism looks and sounds like. We have a rough idea of the history, and most of us know the points of reference: Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts, Enoch Powell and his rivers of blood, the National Front. Over the years, we’ve even developed a typically British response to British fascism: ridicule. Recall the response to Nick Griffin’s damp squib appearance on Question Time: the BNP leader, whose manner was less Führer than frustrated office manager, was instantly dubbed “Adolf Brent”.

But that mindset might need a rethink. Events this weekend and over the last month suggest that, when it comes to organised racism, Britain has more than its own demons to contend with. Now, in a connected world and a linked Europe, what were once foreign racisms are right here.

Barring a last-minute ban from the home secretary, on Sunday Gábor Vona, the leader of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, will address a rally in London. This is part stunt, part hard-headed electioneering. For Vona is here to woo the estimated 50,000 Hungarian expats living in the UK, more than half of whom live in London and the south-east of England. He wants their absentee votes in May’s European elections.

And Jobbik is no BNP, confined to the outer margins of its country’s politics. On the contrary, in 2010 it became Hungary’s third-largest party, winning 17% of the vote and nearly 50 seats in parliament. It also has a claim to be Europe’s most overtly racist party. A favourite target is Hungary’s Roma minority, which could number as many as 800,000. Vona was the founder of the now banned, quasi-military Magyar Garda (Hungarian Guard), whose garb and insignia evoke the pro-Nazi ultra-nationalist parties of Hungary’s past – and whose slogans denounce “Gypsy crime”.

more: The Guardian