Racism in Europe - Hungary

Hungary

Ethnic and religious discrimination in Hungary has a long history, starting after the migration of the nomadic Hungarian tribes from the Urals and their settlement in Central Europe, in the 9th-10th centuries. In various times and degrees, the conquered populations of Ukrainian, Romanian, Slovakian, Croat and Serbian ethnicity, but also Jews and Roma people, have been subject to discrimination based on language, ethnicity or religion, especially during the Kingdom of Hungary and Austro-Hungary.

In 1366, the Decree of Turda of Louis I, king of Hungary, Croatia and Poland, redefined nobility in terms of membership in the Roman Catholic Church and, thus specifically excluding the Eastern Orthodox members, an act of Anti-Romanian Discrimination.

In 1874 all Slovak secondary schools were closed and the Matica slovenská was closed down in April 1875; the building was taken over by the Hungarian government and the property of Matica slovenská, which according to the statutes belonged to the Slovak nation, was confiscated by the Prime Minister's office. The official reasons given were that Matica was "against the government" and "anti-patriotic" – statements for which there was not the least evidence. The confiscated property went to support the process of enforced Magyarization (e.g. foundation of the Magyarisation organisation FMKE, Felvidéki Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület). When asked by a Serbian member of the Diet (there were no Slovak deputies in the Diet) why Matica's property was not returned to the Slovaks, the then prime minister Kálmán Tisza answered that he did not know of a Slovak nation.

In 1892, the Romanians in Transylvania sent the Transylvanian Memorandum to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor-King Franz Joseph, asking for equal ethnic rights with the Hungarians and demanding an end to persecutions and Magyarization attempts. It asked for political rights to be awarded to Romanians, as well as raising a debate on the Kingdom of Hungary's policies of intolerance towards Romanians. Franz Josef, without reading it, forwarded the memorandum to Budapest parliament, which, also without reading it, sent it back to the head of delegation. After printing and spreading the document the authors were charged with incitement committed through the press and most of them sentenced to prison ranging from two months to five years.

In the 20th century, especially during World War II, increasing discrimination and oppression against the Jews and the subdued populations culminated with massacres in Slovakia (Černová massacre, 1907), Yugoslavia (Bečej, Srbobran and Novi Sad, 1942), Romania (Treznea massacre 1940, Ip massacre 1940) and Jewish pogroms.

Jobbik, Hungary's third largest party defines itself as "radically patriotic", but been described as racist and neo-fascist. A large number of extremist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Roma and racist organizations are or were recently active. The racist and anti-Semitic movement persists in the present-day Hungary and is not always sanctioned by the state.