The post entitled "The ‘Magyar Gárda’ Remains Illegal" is about the European Court of Human Rights upholding a Hungarian court ruling dissolving the ‘Magyar Gárda’ organization. That’s an important event, and I called attention to it to counter the common myth that the ‘Magyar Gárda’ is legal in Hungary, together with the myth that the Hungarian government is not taking steps against such extremist organizations.

Other previous attempts to inhibit or outlaw the Gárda were ineffective. The Hungarian Court (not the government) dissolved the civic organizational structure of the Magyar Gárda in 2009, but this did not stop the legal ‘spinoffs’ of the Gárda or illegal organizations to march in uniform, often in areas with large populations of Roma people and with the intent to intimidate.

In 2011, the ruling parties in Parliament, Fidesz-KDNP, with some opposition also supporting, passed an amendment to the penal code, an initiative submitted by the government, which aims at outlawing, or if you prefer ‘criminalizing’ such behavior. The public still refers to this amendment as the “uniformed crime" amendment. Any group of people, in uniform, gathering on public property with the intent of causing fear in any group of people is illegal, and the police would have the right to dissolve and arrest the group in uniform. That’s not word-for-word but captures the gist of it.

(The text of the modification is available here in Hungarian and says: “Anyone who organizes an activity intended at upholding public safety and public order or an activity that might be considered as such with the intent of causing fear in others, commits crime and is punishable by the law up to two years in prison”)

Yes, members of a Gárda-spinoff called the New Hungarian Gárda did gather on Erzsébet tér recently, as some of the critics pointed out. They were exercising their right to freedom of assembly and freedom of association. But the group cannot march “with the intent of causing fear" into a Roma community as they once did freely. And that’s thanks to the law initiated by the current government.

Those are the specifics. But the emotionally charged criticism directed at my Facebook page attempts to obscure a larger point, which is important. International media coverage of Hungary often suggests that radical right-wing groups in Hungary like the Gárda operate unfettered, even encouraged, and imply an association between these groups and the governing parties. The point with the blog post was to underline that the governing parties, Fidesz and KDNP, have taken effective legal action against them that limits their activity.

Some groups and individuals brush over those facts because it doesn’t fit with the story that they try to promote that the governing parties are in cahoots with the extremists. But as I often say on this blog, facts matter. The rest is, at best, merely poetry.

Source: A Blog About Hungary

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