By Zoltán Dujisin
BUDAPEST, Oct 9 2007 (IPS)

The ghost of fascism has resurfaced in Hungary following the set up of a paramilitary organisation promising to “protect the homeland”. But the organisation’s minuscule size made many critics wonder why so much attention was devoted to it.

The National Guard as it is called, was inaugurated Aug. 25 by 56 founding members, a number that coincides with the 1956 rebellion against Soviet troops.

Chairman Tamas Poszpischek claims the group is a “strictly non-partisan organisation that focuses exclusively on the protection of the homeland and tries to avoid the political quagmire.”

But the Guard’s black uniform, their salute “For a better future!” and the fact it was backed by the extreme-right Jobbik Party (Movement for a Better Hungary, a relatively recent party supported by about 1 percent of the population, and considered xenophobic) raised eyebrows among concerned observers.

“Hungary has been left without physical, spiritual and intellectual self-defence,” Jobbik chairman Gabor Vona said in justification of the Guard’s creation. He said the Guard would find a legal way to teach members how to handle firearms.

Neighbouring Slovakia, Romania and Serbia are all countries that Vona sees as potentially coming into military conflict with Hungary. “Those are the countries with which we had constant conflicts during the course of history,” he said.

The presence during the Guard’s inauguration ceremony of former defence minister Lajos Fur, who served under the centre-right MDF (Hungarian Democratic Forum, now a small opposition party in parliament) government between 1990 and 1994, gave the event extra legitimacy.

The governing socialists, in coalition with the junior governing liberals, warned that a new chapter in the history of the right had been opened by the intention of the Guard to arm itself. They called on former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s opposition Fidesz Party to break all relations with Jobbik, with whom the Fidesz conservatives maintain a coalition in 27 local constituencies.

The calls were initially not heeded by Fidesz, which once again faced attacks over its blurry division lines with the extreme right, but gradually its members have condemned the new movement more decisively.

During Orbán’s tenure as prime minister between 1998 and 2002, many international observers and sectors of the left considered he abused the theme of nationalism in pursuing his political goals.

If elections were held today, Fidesz would return to power, polls say. The socialists were elected for a second term in 2006, repeating the 2002 results.

The setting up of the Guard has challenged Fidesz’s “One Camp, One Flag” principle under which all forces on the right should unite against the left. This often implied the need for Orbán to make gestures to the extreme right at the expense of more centrist voters.

The right-wing has blamed the tenure of socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány for causing a social and moral crisis that is at the root of the Guard’s birth. Gyurcsány has been highly contested since he admitted last year to lying to the electorate on the disastrous state of the country’s budget.

Conservative sectors argue that the harsh austerity measures recently introduced by the government are causing disarray in Hungarian society, which is paying for the mistakes and mismanagement of socialist politicians, especially in the health and education sectors.

Leading right-wing daily Magyar Nemzet summarised much of the conservative camp’s feelings on the Guard: “The name, symbols, and self-definition of the organisation…are not too fortunate. Or perhaps they were meant to be provocative…Unfortunately, it has offered the government, which is choking in a crisis generated by itself, the possibility to launch yet another ideological attack and distract attention from the cruel austerity measures.”

The government and media campaign over the new “fascist danger” in Hungary failed to convince many independent observers, who condemn the free publicity given to the group and see it as a socialist attempt to regain support after months of falling approval rates.

“There is indeed a growing extreme-right in Hungary, and Fidesz has many radicals among its ranks, but the left is not isolating the phenomenon; it rather tries to extend the accusation and the phenomenon,” Ferenc Laczó, fellow in the history department at the Central European University in Budapest told IPS.

“The high point came at an international press conference in which Gyurcsány mentioned the word fascism 20 times in two minutes,” Laczó adds. “But people are worn out by these messages especially if such an unpopular politician starts to preach to the opposition to speak up against this.”

But many sectors, especially on the Hungarian left, suspect that anti-Semitism hides behind the organisation’s leitmotif.

Gyurcsány sent a letter to the chief prosecutor asking him to closely follow the activities of the Guard shortly after the Hungarian Assembly of Jewish Congregations and other international Jewish organisations pleaded the Prime Minister for action.

The letter raised criticism from those considering it governmental interference in the judiciary.

Sára Horvát, a Hungarian of Jewish background who works as a public relations officer is critical of the treatment of the issue.

“There is always a danger with such organisations spurring to life, and they could be aimed against Jews, Gypsies or anything not ‘purely’ Hungarian, but we should first be patient, and not start panicking,” she told IPS.

“Maybe they will really help old ladies cross the street and clean graffiti from facades, why can’t we just wait and see what happens?” she added. “The worst strategy was to start this hysteria.”

In an attempt to clarify its goals, the Guard has started a series of debates all over the country to introduce itself directly to Hungarians.

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