Balázs László and Nazism–How a young Hungarian conservative leader is unapologetic about his connection to extremism

On Tuesday, HFP published a story on the president of the nascent Alliance of Conservative Students (Konzervatív Hallgatók Szövetsége – KHSZ), who happens to also be actively involved in the Nazi Pax Hungarica movement. This is an extremist group, previously called Blood and Honour, which bars all homosexuals, Jews, Roma and non-Caucasians from membership. As the controversy surrounding Balázs László’s involvement with Pax Hungarica unfolded in Hungary’s press, the journalist who originally interviewed Mr. Balázs for the pro-Fidesz Magyar Hírlap came under fire for not having asked her interview subject  about his ties to Nazism. The response from Magyar Hírlap and then the young Balázs László’s indignant reaction to the controversy in the Magyar Nemzet daily is so characteristic of how the Hungarian right handles controversies,  and how it deflects all personal responsibility for poor judgment and bad decisions, that we are compelled to return to this subject today.

Members of Pax Hungarica dress in military fatigues and participate in paramilitary training. This photo, with the faces of members blurred by the Nazi organization, depicts members participating in a Fall 2015 retreat. The photo first appeared on the openly Nazi Kitartás website.

Members of Pax Hungarica dress in military fatigues and participate in paramilitary training. This photo, with the faces of members blurred by the Nazi organization, depicts members participating in a Fall 2015 retreat. The photo first appeared on the openly Nazi Kitartás website.

There is no doubt that Balázs László, a political science student at Pázmány Péter Catholic University and President of the KHSZ, has been actively and intimately involved in the avowedly National Socialist Pax Hungarica movement. In today’s Magyar Nemzet daily, Mr. László did nothing to distance himself from Pax Hungarica and in fact, he indirectly condoned the group. But what Mr. László did condemn was the “left-wing media” for drawing attention to his Nazi connection.

“Mr. László told Magyar Nemzet Online that they are trying to discredit his Alliance by attacking his person, as universities serve as a bastion of liberalism and the mere presence of KHSZ may cause cracks. He adds that the ‘left-wing press’ has launched a coordinated attack against him. On an official level,  the KHSZ is not tied to any other organization, but everyone in the Alliance has the right to gravitate to various parties and political directions”wrote Dávid Lakner in today’s Magyar Nemzet, based on his discussions with Mr. László.

The fact that Mr. László blames “the left-wing press” for doing its job, by outing him, is fairly typical of how so many involved in Hungarian politics react when they are caught. What is much more troubling, however, is that Mr. László appears to have implicitly confirmed that he gravitates to the National Socialism of Pax Hungarica and sees nothing problematic with this at all. Nazism, in his mind, is just one of many directions within the Hungarian right-wing political family, and not worthy of being shunned.

“We would like to see extensive right-wing cooperation in our Alliance, in order to protect our values. As such, we cannot commit to any single direction or strand,” added Mr. László in his interview with Magyar Nemzet.

Balázs László in April 2016. Photo: KHSZ.

Balázs László in April 2016. Photo: KHSZ.

Mariann Őry, the journalist at the Magyar Hírlap daily who was the first to interview Mr. László in a gushing report on his new conservative alliance, but who failed to question his involvement with Nazis, published an explanation in today’s paper.

“Since everyone seems interested in this: No, I did not know what groups or parties or whatever else Balázs László belongs to, other than to the student alliance. Congratulations to my colleagues for their investigative journalism capabilities! I know that this information was buried deeper than I could dig. It’s important to note that the attacks have almost exclusively been directed at Balázs László’s person, rather than the content of the interview.”

Part of what that interview was about, and what Mr. László repeated in the Magyar Nemzet today, is vitriol aimed at the student protests of 1968. Some of our readers will recall that the “generation” of 1968 was one of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s main targets a couple of years ago. Mr. László seems most concerned with what he sees as the “sexual promiscuity with which they wanted to degrade humans to the level of animals.”

This incident is quite revealing. When one is ‘caught’ in Hungarian politics, the first reaction is to forcefully denounce those who first detected and dared to go public with one’s ‘transgression.’

The more problematic aspect of this story is that Mr. László is likely well-suited to be given a position in Hungary’s civil service upon graduation. The sudden acute interest on the part of the pro-Fidesz press in this young man and his fledgling group leads me to believe that they were grooming him. And considering that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has just this week come under fire for its lax approach to the security and background screening of candidates, it would not be surprising at all, if a young man with extremist, potentially Nazi credentials landed a job handling sensitive government files.

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