Mayor who uses anti-Semitic undertones talks about racism

Krisztina Baranyi, the left-wing ninth district mayor of the Hungarian capital Budapest has been interviewed by British newspaper The Guardian. Prompting the interview was an intention to erect a monument in her district in honour of Black Lives Matter.

“We spoke to The Guardian,” the district mayor boasted on her social media page.

“The BLM goals of opposing racism and police brutality are just as relevant in Hungary as anywhere else,” she added, quoting herself from the article.

In the interview, Baranyi goes on to say that the Orban government is campaigning relentlessly against migrants and refugees, and that there is systematic discrimination of the Roma minority in Hungary.

However, The Guardian’s article failed to mention a significant piece of information, namely that Baranyi was embroiled in an anti-Semitic scandal last month.

“That’s right, so let’s decide now. We do not sell the real estate, and therefore, gain no income from it. But that damn, rotten Jewish investor can’t build on more than 1,200 square meters,” the district mayor commented on a property deal in a recording obtained by the news programme of Hungary’s TV2 channel.

The mayor did not resign or apologize following this statement, in fact she explained that she was using the ‘rhetorical tool’ to demonstrate to local council representatives where the debate was going.

Krisztina Baranyai took control of the district after winning the 2019 municipal elections with the support of the entire Hungarian opposition. Among others, she was backed by Gergely Karacsony, who was elected mayor of Budapest.

Interestingly, in a recent interim election in Hungary, Gergely Karacsony threw his weight behind a candidate who had made outrageous anti-Semitic statements.

Laszlo Biro, a politician of the right-wing Jobbik party, who also enjoyed the support of all the left-wing parties in the parliamentary by-elections held in the constituency of Szerencs, north-eastern Hungary, made the following posts on social media:

• my dog goes nuts when the “earlocked Yiddos” pass by the house. I’ve got friends in the hotel industry, and they tell me what is going on,
• they excluded the Jews’ bank capital accrued through usury from the economy, put an end to paying cosmopolitan extortion money euphemistically called war reparations,
• the oath taken on the [Hungarian] Holy Crown is nothing. Another two local organisations of the party have been formed in our neighbourhood; I care more about this than about Jewdapest.

In addition Gergely Karacsony is a Hungarian politician who believes that listing Jewish lawmakers does not qualify as Nazism.

V4NA has contacted The Guardian to respond to some questions:

1. Were you aware that Krisztina Baranyi has called an investor a “damn, rotten Jewish” person according to a sound recording?
2. Do you think this qualifies as anti-Semitism?
3. Are you aware of the series of anti-Semitic scandals on the Hungarian left, most recently that of Laszlo Biro, a politician from the Jobbik party, who called Budapest “Jewdapest” and referred to Jewish people as “earlocked Jews”?
4.  Are you planning to report on this in your paper?

We will give an update as soon as we receive response from the liberal lackey media outlet. Incidentally, international press organs systematically accuse Hungary of anti-Semitism. Last year, The Sunday Times wrote on the topic after visiting the very constituency where Laszlo Biro ran in the by-elections. The liberal lackey media, however, remains persistently silent about racism and anti-Semitism coming from the left.

Anti-Semitism and The Sunday Times

Although Hungary is systematically accused of anti-Semitism by international media, there is now a conspiracy of silence surrounding the fact that a politician notorious for his racist and anti-Semitic slurs is nominated as candidate to run in an interim election….