The activities and the ideology of Hungarian far-right and even neo-Nazi organizations differ greatly from those of other European countries. The main differences are, first, that these organizations are very close to the government, which is itself illiberal and far right in its discourse, ideology, and policies. Sometimes policymaking seems to follow the agenda of seemingly fringe groups. Their main themes are the same: a virulent and often openly racist anti-migrant stance, the fight against what they call the "LGBTQ propaganda," a generalized anti-Western, anti-EU attitude, and pro-Russian position, and the stigmatization of the both the political and the emerging civil society opposition.
Second, although there is a pro-government and anti-government far right, they often mingle, appear side by side in the media, and fight for a common cause, as in the case of requesting a presidential pardon for the convicted terrorist György Budaházy. Therefore, the far right – and even neo-Nazis so far as they are do not declare themselves to be such – are "normalized." In both traditional and social media their views have a high degree of legitimacy. This phenomenon is equally reflected in their social media presence on their own platforms, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from government propaganda.
Third, because they are viewed as legitimate, the far right, and even neo-Nazis are also less violent than their Western counterparts. Although the behavior of paramilitary groups can be threatening when, for example, they patrol communes inhabited by Roma, there is very little actual physical violence reported, with the notable exception of the systematic killing of Roma individuals by a neo-Nazi terrorist group in 2008-2009.
YouTube is an important platform for the far right, and they are seldom censored because they police their own language or because they do not get flagged by viewers as a result of their ideas being viewed as legitimate. Self-declared neo-Nazis do have their accounts shut down and videos removed, and so they can only use only Telegram or similar channels, but such users are very few.
YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO THE MEMRI DOMESTIC TERRORISM THREAT MONITOR (DTTM) TO READ THE FULL REPORT. GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA CAN REQUEST A COPY BY WRITING TO DTTMSUBS@MEMRI.ORG WITH THE REPORT TITLE IN THE SUBJECT LINE. PLEASE INCLUDE FULL ORGANIZATIONAL DETAILS AND AN OFFICIAL EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR REQUEST. NOTE: WE ARE ABLE TO PROVIDE A COPY ONLY TO MEMBERS OF GOVERNMENT, LAW ENFORCEMENT, MEDIA, AND ACADEMIA, AND TO SUBSCRIBERS; IF YOU DO NOT MEET THESE CRITERIA PLEASE DO NOT REQUEST.
Ultranationalist Podcast Becoming A Major Forum
A relatively mainstream new news outlet is an important forum for different currents of the Hungarian far right, and even some non-affiliated anti-globalists. It is close to two major neo-Nazi movements in Hungary.
Another podcast managed by the group started about three months ago. The videos generally receive between 50,000 and 70,000 views.
Neo-Nazi Group Use Platform To Attack LGBTQ Community
The presenters of this podcast are the leaders of an irridentist neo-Nazi organization.
A new episode of the podcast is published every other week, and gets around a thousand views. The presenters discuss news they consider important, often focusing on LGBTQ people and its supposed "lobby" and "propaganda," which they routinely couple with "perversions," "deviance," and pedophilia. They also talk a lot about immigration and migrants, especially now that the government has a plan to promote legal immigration for work from the Far East. Their remarks are openly xenophobic and racist, therefore YouTube frequently bans or restricts some of episodes.
The full text of this post is available to DTTM subscribers.
If you are a subscriber, log in here to read this report.
For information on the required credentials to access this material, visit the DTTM subscription page
