BUDAPEST (JTA) — Hungary’s prime minister is working to block a neo-Nazi rally in memory of Hitler’s deputy.
Gordon Bajnai instructed law enforcement agencies to prevent by all available democratic means an international neo-Nazi demonstration in Budapest planned for
Saturday to mark the anniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess.
Bajnai told Jozsef Bencze, Hungary’s national police chief, that the country "cannot be allowed to be reduced to a neo-Nazi parade ground."
Bajnai also met Monday with Hungarian President Laszló Solyom to brief him on the progress of an investigation into a recent series of racist murders targeting the Roma community. Solyom said the murders and related events had whipped social tension to a breaking point.
The organizer of the planned neo-Nazi rally is a little-known Hungarian group called the National Socialist Front. Its literature suggests that it wants to bring to Budapest all the foreign extreme rightist organizations that are banned from spreading their political messages in their native countries.
A peaceful counter-demonstration is being planned for Saturday to confront the rise of neo-Nazi agitation across recession-bound Eastern Europe. A coalition of civil organizations that hopes to attract visiting artists and politicians from many countries called the rally.
Hess died in 1987 at the age of 93 while serving a life sentence handed down by the Nuremberg court following World War II.