BREAKING NEWS

Budapest mayor orders rethink of anti-Semitic street name

KRAKOW – Istvan Tarlos, the mayor of Budapest, ordered on Thursday a review of the city council’s decision to name one of the streets after a Hungarian author known for her anti-Semitic views.
Budapest’s city council voted on Wednesday to name one of the city streets after Cecile Tormay, a Hungarian novelist who died in 1937, known for incorporating in her work her political opinions.
The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, known as Mazsihisz, expressed its outrage about the decision and asked Budapest’s mayor to overturn it. In a statement to the local newswire service MTI the Hungarian Jewish Community leaders wrote: “The Federation of Hungary’s Jewish Communities is shocked to learn that a street in Budapest will be named after Cecile Tormay who was openly anti- Semitic. Her ideas and thoughts were taken as guidelines by leading anti-Semitic figures in Hungarian politics.
She was Miklos Horthy’s favorite. We call on you not to name public places in the city after persons whose life and works raise doubts about the government’s commitment to fight anti-Semitism.”
Horthy was Hungary’s wartime leader and a close ally of Adolf Hitler.