In recent years Hungary’s Orbán government has targeted the Roma community, Hungary’s Jews and now the LGBTQ community. Racism, anti-Semitism and Holocaust falsification are institutionalized in Budapest and now homophobia has been legislated in this EU-member country. Hungary’s new “pedophilia law” connects the country’s LGBTQ community to pedophilia.
Pro-Hitler Hungarian dictator of the last century, Miklós Horthy is profusely praised lately and convicted WWII criminals are hailed as heroes. In order to spread Orbán’s far-right ideas in the emigre community the Hungarian government has built a network of diplomats, honorary consuls and sympathizers in North-America. The small but well-financed group is willing to attack critics of Orbán.
On June 18 Jerrad Peters published a piece in the Winnipeg Free Press about Hungary’s far-right soccer fans. He wrote: “Present at the Portugal game, as even a casual observer will have noticed, was a section of far-right ultras behind one of the goals, to the left of the screen for those watching on television. It was the Carpathian Brigade, and several of its black-clad members celebrated the Schon non-goal with Nazi salutes.”
Peters also noticed that : “They also unfurled a banner with a homophobic message — emboldened, no doubt, by legislation passed the same day prohibiting LGBTQ+ content in schools and programming on television targeted to audiences under the age of 18.”
Hungary’s institutionalized homophobia has reached the soccer stadiums and Peters claims that “Homophobia has been central to Viktor Orban’s fascist ideology.” (Read Peters’ article here)
Valér Palkovits is a deeply religious single man and a member of the Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic Parish in Toronto. He is Orbán’s Consul General in the Canadian metropolis. He decided to “defend” the Budapest regime and penned a lengthy, polite and somewhat incoherent response. (Read Palkovits’ response here)
He wrote that he was “stunned” to read the article entitled „Football needs to talk about Hungary” with the subtitle: „Oppressive government under spotlight as Budapest hosts Euro matches.” Palkovits accused the author of “taking situations and events out of context and arriving at negative political conclusions.” He even brought up the Yugoslav civil war fought 20 years ago to defend the indefensible policies of the government.
Peters responded with a tweet by calling the Consul a “far-right homophobe.”
In 2018 Christopher Adam wrote a short piece about Consul Palkovits. While the consul seems to be a pleasant young man, I question his competence. (Read Adam’s piece about Palkovits.)
According to Consul Palkovits: “Facts are important when we draw conclusions and formulate harsh and disparaging words.” The Orbán government is the one ignoring the facts for over a decade now and it has transformed Hungary into an anti-West, pro-Putin and pro-China “Viktatorship.”
Orbán has led his country into a dead-end tunnel; doubletalk and far-right propaganda do not work anymore.
György Lázár