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Hungary will hold elections in one week, and a real hardcore far-right party (BNP's Hungarian ally Jobbik) looks set to receive double digits, so I had a knot in the stomach about what they will defile streets with. But so far, there was nothing racist or xenophobic on their posters (only threatening talk about the People's Fist and such towards the government).

In earlier elections, defiling others' posters has been a far-right speciality, unfortunately. Particularly bad were the 2002 elections, when practically all giant posters of the liberal party in Budapest were smeared with anti-semitic slogans in a timespan of days.

There is actually a law against defiling or removing other parties' posters, but the practice is common even among party activists. Just this past week, a Jobbik activist was captured in the act of removing a cardboard poster of another party, with half a dozen in the hold of his car already. (I note that Jobbik's own cardboard posters in my town, hanging on makeshift bars put on electric masts, appear to be illegal. But there was never much control of this, either.)

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Fri Apr 2nd, 2010 at 03:42:56 AM EST
a real hardcore far-right party (BNP's Hungarian ally Jobbik) looks set to receive double digits

As a rule of thumb, I'd say 1/6 of the vote going to xenophobic parties should be considered 'normal' in Europe. It's when they start polling above 20% and becoming the second largest party (or the first!) as in the Swiss SVP or Wilders in the Netherlands that one can talk about something anomalous going on.

Often this vote will be hidden in mainstream right-wing parties and the explicitly senophobic options remain marginal (as in Spain) but it doesn't mean that 1/6 of the voters aren't xenophobes.

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Apr 2nd, 2010 at 09:49:00 AM EST
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Based on the polls, Jobbik has a decent chance of becoming the second party, and a slight chance of passing 20%. In addition, Jobbik's success is a failure of the main right-wing party to integrate the total right-wing spectrum that was not for lack of trying: they have anti-Gypsy and anti-semitic idiots on-board, too, so the circle is wider than Jobbik. But wait for my election diary next week for some more details.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Fri Apr 2nd, 2010 at 01:25:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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