World Jewish Congress leaders meet with Hungarian PM

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Leaders of the World Jewish Congress warned Monday of a rise in far-right extremism in Hungary during a meeting with Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. "It is alarming that only 60 years after the Holocaust, people in uniforms closely resembling those of Hungarian fascists during World War II are parading again the streets of Budapest," WJC president Ronald S. Lauder said in a statement. He was referring to the far-right Hungarian Guard, which was formed in August and since has sworn in some 600 members in two public ceremonies. The rest of its activities have been low-key, mostly tributes in countryside towns to Hungarian historical figures and those killed in the country's wars. The group uses the Arpad Stripes, ancient Hungarian flags associated more recently with the Arrow Cross, Nazi henchmen who briefly ran Hungary near the end of World War II.