Anti-Semitism accusations against Hungary
After German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth (from the Social Democratic Party of Germany) made critical remarks about Hungary in an interview, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador to a meeting in Budapest to explain the remarks. Roth had said that rampant anti-Semitism in Hungary was one of the reasons for the opening of the Article 7 proceedings against the country. Is the accusation justified?
Get your own act together first
The German Foreign Minister would do better to address anti-Semitism in his own country, advises the pro-government daily Magyar Hírlap:
“In other capitals, too, Roth likes to disseminate his views as to which political forces the German Social Democrats, as representatives of the developed West, would like to see in power, and which it would not. National, Christian, and conservative governments, for example, seem to be of little interest to him. ... But if Roth were to look around Germany he might be surprised at what he sees. Growing anti-Semitism has been an issue there and in other Western European states for years. ... Roth and the others are of course blind to the connection between immigration and anti-Semitism. Otherwise, against how many other member states would Article 7 proceedings have to be initiated?”
Budapest turning a blind eye to essentials
Népszava criticises the fact that the Hungarian government is concentrating on a marginal note while ignoring the main criticism of the German Minister of State for Europe:
“Of the numerous allegations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szíjjártó picked out just one in which the Social Democrat referred to anti-Semitism in Hungary and Poland. ... Roth now stresses that there can be no talk of the collective responsibility of a nation. The foreign minister didn't react at all to Roth's statements regarding freedom of the media and that the democratic culture is endangered when a certain group controls the press.”