Article ‘embarrasses’ Hungarian party

The article triggered a national furore. Ibolya David, leader of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, condemned Mr Bayer’s writings as “bewildering, revolting and scandalous... Magyar Hirlap has stepped beyond a line over which no one should cross.”

The intellectuals signed an open letter, asking Gabor Szeles, the newspaper’s proprietor, if he felt comfortable financing a newspaper in which a writer declares himself to be antisemitic.

Gabor Demszky, the mayor of Budapest, said he would no longer give interviews to Magyar Hirlap.

Mr Bayer, who often writes critically on Jewish themes, is a founder member of the main opposition party, Fidesz, and the author of the party’s official history. He does not hold an official party position but spoke at Fidesz’s 20th birthday party on Sunday.

The article is embarrassing for Fidesz at a time when it has reached out to Jewish leaders. During the recent furore over the extreme-right self-styled civil-defence force, the Magyar Garda, Fidesz leaders wrote to the Jewish community, assuring it of their support.

Tamas Deutsch-Fur, a Fidesz leader himself of Jewish background, said that part of Mr Bayer’s article was “unacceptable”, although he did not think the author was antisemitic.

Gabor Szeles, the owner of Magyar Hirlap, said in a public letter that there was no excuse for antisemitism, but that the scandal about Mr Bayer’s article was being “artificially fuelled”.

Peter Feldmajer, President of Mazsihisz, the Association of Jewish Communities, told the JC that Mr Seles should resign his position as head of the factory owners’ association. “Zsolt Bayer is a marginal figure but Mr Seles symbolises the new class of owners. It seems the richest people in Hungary are making an alliance with the far-right.”