The International Democrat Union (IDU) is an alliance of right wing political parties, headquartered in Munich, Germany and currently chaired by Stephen Harper, the former Prime Minister of Canada.
Mr. Harper and his friend, Hungarian-born Canadian film producer, Robert Lantos travelled to Hungary to spend the August 20th National Holiday with far-right authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Lord Ashcroft, conservative British billionaire politician (and writer) also showed up.
Family photo – Lord Ashcroft (left), Mr. Harper, Mr. Orbán, Ms. Novák and Mr. Rogán.
Orbán issued an official statement that he met Harper “to discuss current political events… the talks touched on general political topics and the possibilities of developing Hungarian-Canadian cultural ties.”
Mr. Antal Rogán, Orbán’s cabinet chief, and Ms. Katalin Novák, the state secretary for youth and family affairs, also attended the meeting.
Ms. Novák’s welcome Twitter “on the Birthday of our Christian country” with Mr. Lantos (in blue shirt).
Mr. Lantos (left) with Mr. Harper in Budapest
Lord Ashcroft noted that he had an “interesting” meeting and Ms. Novák greeted the guests in Christian Hungary. Mr. Lantos is Jewish and as a youngster had unpleasant experiences in “Christian Hungary”… but kept smiling. Politics (and money) make strange bedfellows.
György Lázár
I would hardly call these people Conservatives in the traditional sense. Though Stephen Harper was a good steward of Canada’s economy, his Kowtowing to Zionist interests was disgraceful. Except for Stephen Harper, many of these people would have been known as Trotskyists in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. Put a new label on an old problem and presto, you get a Neocon.
Don
Trotskyites … and neocons ?!@**$?
WTF!
What school did u go to? if any.
If you think Harper was a ‘good steward of Canada’s economy’, you are pretty dumb.
Just sayin’.
JFS, Compared to the worthless little imbecile who is currently our Prime Minister, yes, Harper was a good steward of the economy. He also understood that open borders leads to the death of a nation.
Can you explain how all these people got to the US? And they made the USA big!
Harper was great to Canada . Nothing wrong with him . I personally live in NYC the only city what is great in the USA . Now we have Trump . Not bad at all . His style is unusual that’s for sure . Obama was much much worst .
“Mr. Lantos is Jewish and as a youngster had unpleasant experiences in “Christian Hungary”… but kept smiling. Politics (and money) make strange bedfellows.”
Well, If Mr. Lantos were to go to the local Synagogue today, wearing a kippah, he would find that Hungary is a place where one can do that, without fear of being confronted with violence.
No longer true in many other EU countries, such as Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, UK and so on.
Here is a recent article about antisemitism in Europe, in which surprise, no mention of Hungary, because truth is there is not much to be mentioned about Hungary!
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2019/august/anti-semitism-spiking-they-start-with-jews-but-they-never-finish-with-jews
Perhaps Mr Lantos recognizes this fact, thus he appreciates Hungary.
Carpetbaggers aside,
God forgive Harper for he knows not what he’s doing,
posing next to one of the biggest criminals and definitely the most appallingly corrupt politician in modern Hu history.
Joe, if Mr. Lantos were to go to the local Synagogue today, wearing a kippah, he would find that Hungary is the place where he might be attacked… and he might have to walk by dozens of statues anti-Semites like Albert Wass, János Esterházy, Ferenc Koszorús etc… Orbán’s regime is hiding appalling anti-Semitic incidents… It seems that Budapest is using propaganda and… internet trolls to mislead the non-Hungarian speaking public…
https://www.szombat.org/hirek-lapszemle/antiszemita-atrocitas-nyiregyhazan
I am not saying that antisemitic acts do not exist in Hungary. But Jewish groups themselves are accounting for most West European countries being far worse in this regard.
48 violent antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2018, versus 3 in Hungary.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-report-points-to-sharp-rise-in-anti-semitic-violence/
Adjusting for Germany’s smaller Jewish population, Jews are about 50 times less likely to experience a violent assault in Hungary, as opposed to Germany. That is a huge difference, which one cannot just dismiss as carelessly as you constantly do. And this difference is observed also in most other countries, such as France, Sweden, Belgium, UK and so on. BTW, German government’s attempts to whitewash by claiming its the far right has been denounced by Jews.
https://www.jta.org/2019/06/14/global/germany-is-accused-of-downplaying-anti-semitic-attacks-by-muslims
Take Sweden for instance, where it is said that Malmo’s Jewish community might actually disappear within a decade, due to violence against them.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/malmos-jewish-community-warns-it-could-disappear-by-2029-over-security-fears/
The shameless aspect of what you are doing is that I provided these facts before, yet you keep going as if they do not exist!
To Joe
Good to believe the way you do….
It’s inbred, inborn in the Hungarians… even if they “tolerate” seeing a Jew wearing a kippah – the disapproving look, or a saying under their breath is same – just no violence … yet- that’s why let them go to Israel and put their sweat, tears and formidable brains in the economy instead of the “host” countries who threw them under the bus..
You are making a number of false claims here Palinka. There is no evidence of significant Jewish-Hungarian outflow. There is in France, Belgium and other countries in Western Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/12/rise-in-numbers-of-jews-leaving-europe-for-israel-is-not-an-exodus
I don’t think Jews would be as comfortable as they are in Hungary with publicly identifying themselves as they do, if they would be faced with the constant hostility that you describe. Hungary is the only country I have been to in Europe, where Jews were comfortable identifying themselves in public. Everywhere I have been in Western Europe, I did not see that!
Mr Harper has been derailed as he proved with his unbelievable congratulatory message to Orban after his win on the totally rigged election. Ignorant was he called as mildest remark. Shame of Canada!
Everyone else there are also questionable characters.
The subject of the unholy alliance between Harper’s Conservatives, Bay Street moguls like the late Peter Munk, Conrad Black, or men like Robert Lantos and Viktor Orbán’s anti-democratic, unjust, rule of law violating autocracy deserves a much deeper analysis than the short snapshot we’ve been given above. I trust the HFP will offer some additional insights to its readers during the upcoming federal election campaign. In the meantime some additional pieces of information on this subject are in order:
The beginning of Mr. Harper’s love fest with the Hungarian autocrat, Viktor Orbán, goes back to the political strategist that managed both Harper’s and Orbán’s election campaigns – the late Arthur J. Finkelstein (known worldwide as the Merchant of Venom.) For details on Finkelstein’s role in the Harper campaigns, and how they conspired together to pervert our democracy turn to Michael Harris’s excellent book, A Party of One.
Finkeslstein was a close pal not only of Harper, and Orbán, but of Donald Trump, and the late Roy Cohn as well as current American Ambassador to Budapest, David Cornstein. (They all called him Finkie) He was the electoral genius behind the worst elements of the Republican Party (e.g. the racist homophobe Jessie Helms) and headed the “Get Hillary” campaign in New York Senatorial race of 2005. He is the mentor of such „fine specimens” (sic) of American electoral politics as Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and the gang that brought Donald Trump into the White House.
After “Finkie” got Harper elected in Canada, he moved his HQ to Budapest from where he single-handedly spearheaded the design and field-testing of electoral strategies that brought autocratic rule to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and to many of the states of the former Soviet Empire including Hungary. Finkie introduced Manafort to the money taps operated by Putin’s oligarchy.
Orbán’s Canadian Ambassador, Bálint Ódor, has been hard at work ever since his posting to this country with the gang that swept Harper to power, and is hard at work with them as I write these words now. He and his Budapest bosses are hard at work trying to tip the scales against the Liberal Party of Canada in the upcoming federal elections. The reason for the renewed collusion between the Orbán regime and the gang that brought us Harper is easy to see. It’s driven by the desire for easy access to a segment of Bay Street that has invested heavily in Orbán’s kleptocracy in the past, and to secure political legitimacy for the Hungarian autocrat from a new Conservative PM, in order to keep the money-taps open.
It is a shame, the talented Robert Lantos has allowed himself to be part of a process that embraces leaders who decorate the murderers of his ancestors. (Viktor Orbán considers Hitler’s Hungarian ally, Nicholas Horthy, the man who sent 600,000 Hungarian Jews to the ovens of Auschwitz, his hero).
It’s a shame, the talented Robert Lantos has allowed himself to be part of a process that embraces a regime that uses the values of Canada as a foot mat, and is trying to use Canadian businessmen to maintain itself in power by trampling on the values that hundreds of thousands of Canadians have given their lives to defend in two world wars.
The long running and systematic collusion between Harper’s Conservatives, self-serving business moguls, and Orbán’s Kleptocracy must end!
Canadians, who call themselves democrats, and regardless of party affiliation should call on Andrew Scheer to end the unholy alliance between Canada’s Tories and Putin’s Trojan Horse within the Western Alliance.
Mr. Scheer should make it unequivocally clear to Canadians during this campaign that unlike his predecessor Stephen Harper, if he is elected, he will not be a chaperone for a kleptocrats and rule of law violators in our House of Commons!
Mr. Scheer should seize the opportunity now, by declaring that unlike his predecessor, Stephen Harper, he will not allow autocrats like Viktor Orbán and his diplomats and minions in this country, to meddle in our country’s democratic electoral processes, and to trample on the values that are the sacred trust of our system of governance.
Just look at these trumps.. There body language and the way they awfully dress.. Shows a lot…
“Viktor Orbán considers Hitler’s Hungarian ally, Nicholas Horthy, the man who sent 600,000 Hungarian Jews to the ovens of Auschwitz, his hero”
Extremely dishonest Gollner!
The Mass-deportations of the Jews to extermination camps started in March, 1944 after Germany effectively occupied Hungary, and then intensified after Horthy was removed. Yes, many Hungarians eagerly participated, yes Horthy too was an anti-semite. But there is also this:
https://www.jta.org/2018/10/18/global/dutch-jews-found-haven-anti-semitic-hungary
Does this seem like the actions of someone who agreed with Hitler’s murderous plan for Europe’s Jews? Not trying to take away from all the wrongs, but this too has to be accounted for, if one wants an accurate historical picture of the events.
Horthy also tried to resist the deportations at times, even going as far as ordering the police to shoot at German soldiers who try to round up Jews.
So your claim is indeed extremely dishonest, and it does not reflect historical evidence.
Many Hungarians do appreciate Horthy for trying to return some of the lands inhabited by ethnic Hungarians. Can you really fault them for that? What happened 100 years ago was a great injustice against Hungarians, just to satisfy the strategic aims of France. Half of the 3.5 million ethnic Hungarians who were condemned 100 years ago to live as a mostly despised minority in a neighboring country, lived in compact majority Hungarian areas, right along Hungary’s current borders, so they could have been spared just by respecting ethnic boundaries. Take Southern Slovakia for instance, or Northern Serbia, North-West Romania. That is why Hungarians remember him. Lots of crimes are also attributed to Napoleon, yet France is full of his statues.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1504014/Napoleons-genocide-on-a-par-with-Hitler.html
Yes, a picture says more than a thousand words!
@ Joe
Being a troll does entitle you to live on a troll farm, hide behind a mask and lie down here in this underpass Joe. Being a scholar entitles me to use my real name, and protect the truth down here from your ilk.
Hungary was not invaded by German troops in March 1944. She was an ally of Germany. Unlike in Poland, German troops were on Hungary’s territory by mutual consent. Not a single bullet was fired by anyone against the so-called invaders. Hungary’s troops fought side by side with the Nazis to protect the German Reich till the last day of the war. 60,000 were captured by the Americans in Germany, defending the Reich at the end of the war.
Virtually the entire rural Jewry of Hungary – 460,000 was deported to the gas chambers of Auschwitz and murdered while Horthy was in power, and with his approval as Regent. Horthy was only replaced with a more loyal Hungarian Nazi, Szálasi, in October. Why ? The gutless, spineless Nazi quisling saw the writing on the wall, was trying to suck up to the allies to save his hide, and the Germans found out about his efforts to betray them.
As For Orbán’s hero worship of the man who led Hungary from August 1, 1919 into its most disgusting modern historical period, here is a short English language reminder from one of Mr. Lázár’s earlier posts. https://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/07/06/orbans-explicit-praise-of-horthy-is-a-denial-of-hungarys-fascist-past/ (Saying that Bolsheviks like Mátyás Rákosi, or János Kádár were also criminals does not prove Horthy’s or Orbáns innocence. Pointing the finger at others does not disprove Orbán’s status as yet another corrupt, self-serving Hungarian leader who specializes in affinity fraud.)
There is a warehouse-full of empirically verifiable Hungarian language evidence that highlights Viktor Orbán’s admiration of the man who declared war on Europe, America, and on the values Canadians consider sacred. Viktor Orbán’s admiration for the man who not only stole democracy from Hungarians after WWI, but signed the death warrants of Robert Lantos’s or Peter Munk’s relatives is not a lie, but an empirically verifiable fact.
Can we stop gathering flowers for Hitler, for Horthy ? Can we have some respect, please, for the innocent victims of tyranny ? Can we stop kissing up to a Hungarian leader who engages in rewriting history? Surely there must be better ways to making a buck !!!!!!
1) “Not a single bullet was fired by anyone against the so-called invaders.”
Same can be said about Chechoslovakia in 1938, yet it is called an occupation event.
2) After March, it is a stretch to claim that Horthy was calling the shots in regards to deportations. Before German occupation in March, 1944 such deportations were not occurring.
Just a sample of your academic scholarship!
3) It is not your credentials that allow you to use your full name, but rather your alignment with currently dominant ideological dogma. Those who stray have been known to be persecuted. Take this example:
https://www.cato.org/blog/you-cant-make-speech-code-investigates-students-discussing-freedom-speech
As for WW2 and what is held sacred and so forth, while Hungary was allied with Germany, US, Canada UK and so on were allies with an even more brutal regime, namely the USSR. I guess what is held sacred in this society more than anything is hypocrisy? Can you please have some respect for the victims of tyranny?