Hungarian lawmaker resigns from anti-Semitic Jobbik party after revealing Jewish origins
A Hungarian far-right lawmaker who recently declared he
was Jewish has resigned from most of his positions within the Jobbik Party.
Csanad Szegedi stepped down last week at the request of
the party’s leaders, according to Jobbik’s official website. The
Anti-Defamation League describes Jobbik as “openly anti-Semitic.”
Szegedi had created a "spiral of lies” in an attempt
to conceal his origins, according to a communique published on the Jobbik site.
The party’s vice president, Elod Novak, therefore called on Szegedi to resign,
the text read.
In a communique released last week, Szegedi wrote:
“Effective immediately, I resign from all my posts and functions in Jobbik.”
The resignation is meant “to prevent further attacks against Jobbik by enemy
forces,” he added. “I cease all my domestic political activities and I continue
my work solely as a member of the European Parliament."
Jobbik President Gabor Vona called on Szegedi to also
give up his seat in the European Parliament. Szegedi said he would reply to
this request by the end of the European Parliament summer recess on 30 August.
Vona, who denies that Jobbik is anti-Semitic, said that
Szegedi’s Jewish ancestry is not the reason for the fallout. Rather, Jobbik
takes issue with Szegedi’s attempts to conceal it, Vona said. According to the
Jobbik website, party leaders asked Szegedi to step down following reports in
the media that he offered a person money to keep the news from getting out.
Szegedi denies this allegation “categorically.”
In June, Szegedi revealed in an interview for a far-right
publication that his grandmother, Magdolna Klein, was a Jewish Holocaust
survivor.
Szegedi was replaced as the party’s vice president in
internal elections in May
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