Ágnes Vadai insisted at a press conference that the government was promoting the conference as a scholarly and cultural event but the invited speakers were “disgraceful and absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of human rights, the rule of law and the anti-Fascist and anti- Nazi traditions of Europe.”

The list which was made “unexpectedly unavailable” on the website of the event includes Milo Yiannopoulos, who has come under fire for his remarks concerning paedophilia. Yiannopoulos is an “openly, provocatively anti-minority, anti-Semitic representative of the American alt-right toting a Nazi attitude,” Vadai said.

Other speakers include Götz Kubitschek, “a well-known figure of the German neo-Nazi movement who defines himself as a Fascist”, and Frank Füredi, whose political convictions changed from the far left to the far right over the years, Vadai said.

Ruling Fidesz’s group leader Gergely Gulyás said at a press conference on an unrelated subject earlier that it was “not likely” that Yiannopoulos would attend the conference.

Gulyas said that the event was being organised by a public foundation associated with historian Mária Schmidt, rather than the government, and the list of invitees had not been finalised.

He added that the Hungarian government condemned paedophilia.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.