The Centrist Democrat International (CDI) has adopted a resolution condemning the Hungarian left-wing parties’ cooperation with nationalist Jobbik and calling for zero tolerance of far-right, xenophobic and anti-Semitic views, Zsolt Németh, the Fidesz head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said on Friday.
The CDI’s leadership passed the resolution at Fidesz’s request in a meeting on Thursday evening, Németh told MTI.
The document condemns Hungary’s left-wing parties for their alliance with Jobbik, stressing that the CDI considers cooperation with “extremist, xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic” political forces unacceptable, Németh said, arguing that such cooperation hurts ethnic and religious minorities, including Europe’s Jewish community.
Németh said the CDI had also expressed concern over Jobbik’s “anti-European prejudices,” noting that the party had for a long time advocated for Hungary’s exit from the European Union, with many of its rallies at the time featuring EU flag-burning.
“In the present situation this anti-European sentiment is the last thing Europe needs,” he said.
The CDI has issued a clear zero-tolerance position on xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic views, Németh said, adding that the organization was calling on Hungary’s left-wing parties to refrain from all forms of cooperation with political forces that express such views.
In its resolution, the CDI raised concerns “about the fact that left and liberal parties in Hungary who in recent years distanced themselves from far-right Jobbik are now aiming to help the far-right come to power in a potential future governing coalition.”
The organization, of which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is a vice-president, “condemns any kind of cooperation between the European socialist and liberal parties and the xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-European extremist movements,” it said. The CDI added that it specifically condemned Hungary’s left wing “for including Jobbik, a party known for its anti-Semitic and racist ideology, in an electoral alliance.”
The organization also expressed concern over cooperation between mainstream parties and “anti-Semitic politicians”, which it said “could seriously endanger the situation of religious minorities, especially the flourishing Jewish community in Europe”.
Featured photo illustration by Balázs Szecsődi /MTI/Prime Minister’s Press Office
