A házfoglalás nem volt veszélyes a társadalomra

Posted on April 10, 2013 by ellenpolus

targyalas_1.jpg2013. április 9-én kedden volt az első bírósági tárgyalás azoknak az aktivistáknak az ügyében, akik még 2013. januárjában elfoglalták a VII. kerület Csányi utca 5. alatt található üresen álló önkormányzati ingatlant. A házfoglalók rendészeti eszközök és tömegszállók helyett kiterjedt szociális bérlakásrendszert és a lakhatáshoz való jog törvénybe foglalását és érvényesítését követelték. 27 házfoglalót előállítottak és jogszerű rendőri intézkedéssel szembeni ellenszegülés miatt eljárást indítottak ellenük. Összesen több mint egymillió forint értékű bírságot állapítottak meg (fejenként 30 és 110 ezer forint között). Az aktivisták bírósági tárgyalást kértek, hogy kifejthessék, mi volt a céljuk a foglalással és a bírság elengedését kérjék, hiszen tettük nem volt veszélyes a társadalomra.

A város mindenkié

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EC ready to check Hungary’s compliance with ruling of the European Court of Justice

Posted on April 10, 2013 by ellenpolus

The European Commission and the European Parliament is likely to complete their scrutiny of Hungary’s implementing a ruling by the European Court of Justice, under which judges forced into retirement should be restored to their former positions, EC Vice-President Viviane Reding said in Washington. Reding said the scrutiny had been launched because the Commission wanted to ascertain to what extent the Hungarian constitution was in line with European legislation. One of several issues the Commission had raised questions about was the case of 750 Hungarian judges, who had been sent to retirement under a Hungarian law – later annulled by the Hungarian Constitutional Court – and who sought legal remedy at the European forum. The commissioner said that the EU had but a “nuclear weapon” against members violating European norms, Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, under which a member state could be deprived of its vote in the community. That, however, should only be used if “all goes wrong”, she said, adding that the treaty should be amended so that the EU has less stringent ways to deal with violators. Meanwhile, in an interview published in Saturday’s daily Népszava, Reding said the EC is not waging any kind of war against Hungary, it is only insisting that the country’s legal system be in line with European Union rules. Hungary’s legal system must fully comply with the EU’s and the same applies to all EU members, regardless of which political party is in the government, Reding said. She denied that Brussels did not have concrete, factual concerns about happenings in Hungary. Reding said the European Commission was preparing a detailed analysis of whether the recent, fourth amendment to the Hungarian constitution was in line with the law. It is very regrettable that the Hungarian government refused to comply with a request by EC President Jose Manuel Barroso and did not wait for the EC’s assessment before approving the constitutional amendment, Reding added.

BBJ

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The Czech Visual Art Fund’s legacy is only destruction and decay!

Posted on April 9, 2013 by ellenpolus

During the past twenty years, the Mánes’ building administered by the Czech Visual Art Fund (former Visual Art Fund) has become the symbol of the negative consequences of privatization of culture. Lawsuits regarding its ownership in the 1990s resulted in victory of purposeful interpretation of law over justice. Commercialization of the gallery program by the Fund made manifest the absence of cultural goals or care for the quality of the program. This could happen only because of the complete repression of the ideals of community life. Acting of the Fund is like acting of a realist agent who runs a business with property exclusively for profit. The circumstances of the building reconstruction made it clear again that the Visual Artists Fund seeks private capital, which led to the attempts of its control by Martin Roman, the former boss of Czech state-controlled electricity giant.

However, the Association of Visual Artists Mánes that built the Mánes’ building in 1930 was founded to meet the needs of visual artists to organize the own professional life and to mediate the actual and current art to the society:

“Fostering mutuality among members as well as serious, fruitful, artistic and literary direction; approximating and unifying all Slavonic elements of visual artists in Prague, supporting pauper members as much as possible, organizing discussions related to various areas of visual and literary art, organizing association exhibitions, keeping cooperative relations with similar artistic unions and, last but not least, organizing events and issuing an art magazine of the association.” (The first Statutes of the Association of Visual Artists Mánes, adopted on 27 April 1887)

From the last quarter of the 19th century till 1956, the Association of Visual Artists Mánes played a crucial role in the cultural life of the Czech society. The creative potential of its members who, beside their exhibition activities, published the art magazine Volné směry (Free Directions) left significant marks in the history of our country.

The Czech Visual Art Fund’s legacy is only destruction and decay!

For this reason, we decided to occupy the former residence and exhibition space of the Association of Visual Artists Mánes. We would like to point out its troubling present that is the consequence of corruption and predatory economization as well as the haunting absence of the spirit of artists’ collective self-organization.

In the present situation, the Mánes’ Building does not deserve to bear the name of Mánes. All ideals represented by the name of the founder Josef Mánes have been forgotten. However, we do not wish to rename the building. The only solution is a radical re-organization of the Fund and restoration of the idea of the artist union. We request that all positions in the Administrative Board be handed over to persons elected in a democratic way by all participants of the event entitled Mánes to Artists, which will transform the Fund to an organization with open membership.

During the 2-day symbolic occupation, we will change the premises of the building into a forum where historical as well as future perspectives of the artist union activity in our country will be discussed. For at least two days, we will return the building its original function. By your participation in the event you will express your support to our demands and you will be able to participate in the election of the new members of the Administrative Board who will become the guarantee of its better future.

manes-umelecum

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Hungary Bans Anti-Semitic Rally on Holocaust Memorial Day

Posted on April 9, 2013 by ellenpolus

Hungary banned a rally organized under the slogan “Give Gas” that was planned to coincide with a Holocaust memorial march after a Jewish group complained that it amounted to a call for genocide.

Budapest police will deploy “all legal means” to stop the rally by bikers, whose “provocative” name and timing is “an offense,” according to the statement. Prime Minister Viktor Orban had called for the ban, saying the protest was an affront to human dignity, state news service MTI reported today.

The name of the Apr. 21 rally, which would pass in front of the capital’s main synagogue, “unequivocally refers to the tortuous deaths of more than 400,000 of our compatriots killed in Auschwitz with poisonous gas and is a call to repeat these harrowing deeds,” Hungarian Jewish group Mazsihisz said in a statement on its website. The bikers, who describe themselves as “patriotic,” called it a “simple demonstration,” according to a posting on their Facebook page.

bussinesweek

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Regierung will Nazi-Biker-Korso in Ungarn verbieten

Posted on April 9, 2013 by ellenpolus

Der ungarische Regierungschef Orbán hat “Innenminister Pintér angewiesen, sicherzustellen, dass es am Tag des `Marsches der Lebenden` (21.4.) unmöglich ist, Veranstaltungen abzuhalten, die eine derartige politische Natur haben, die geeignet ist, die Würde der Marschierer zu verletzen.” Das teilte das Amt des Ministerpräsidenten am Abend in einer Aussendung mit und zitierte damit Orbáns Antwort auf einen Redebeitrag des MSZP-Abgeordneten Pál Steiner bei der heutigen Parlamentssitzung.

 

Der Anlass des Marsches der Lebenden sei nicht nur die Erinnerung an die Opfer des Holocaust, sondern auch die Schaffung eines Ungarns, das frei von Rassismus und Extremismus ist. In der Aussendung wird der “”Gib Gas!”-Aufrug der Biker-Gruppe, siehe hier, nochmals als “sehr geschmacklos” und “gegen den Geist der Verfassung” gerichtet, eingestuft. Orbán traf danach Anweisung “einen sicheren, ungestörten Ablauf” des Marsches, zu dem über Zehntausend Menschen erwartet werden, “mit allen Mitteln” zu gewährleisten. Ob Regierung und Innenminister ein Biker-Korso unter obigem Motto und mit einer Route an der Synagoge vorbei außerhalb von Holocaust-Gedenktagen für weniger bedenklich halten, blieb offen.

Das Innenministerium teilte inzwischen mit, dass man alle “rechtlichen Mittel” ausschöpfen werde, um die Biker-Demo “zu verbieten”, da Zeit, Rute und Losungen der Aktion “eine Beleidigung aller gutmeinenden Menschen sind”. Dass allein schon der Aufruf für eine Strafanzeige reicht, ist zwar unsere Auffassung, davon war aber vom Innenministerium bisher nichts zu hören. Mehr als einmal waren in der Vergangenheit Gerichte der Meinung, dass Aufmärsche von Neonazis, auch von verbotenen Organsiationen von der Versammlungsfreiheit gedeckt seien und überstimmten polizeiliche Verbote.

PesterLloyd

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Bitte unterschreibt zahlreich diese Petition! / Petition: The Hungarian Neo-Nazi Party Jobbik

Posted on April 9, 2013 by ellenpolus

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.

Sign here

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.

Hungarian Spectrum

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Antisemitismus: Problem Ungarn : Rechtextreme Partei “die wahren Ungarn” predigen Hass gegenüber Juden

Posted on April 9, 2013 by ellenpolus

Tagesthemen.de

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