Horthy som nutida hjälte.

Miklos Horthy (1868-1957)

Regimen i Ungern finner det angeläget att upphöja landets krigstida ledare Miklos Horthy till hjälte och förebild. Här nedan lite läsning med länkar.

Den 18 juni skriver The Economist:

MIKLOS HORTHY, Hungary’s wartime leader, whose birthday is today, is enjoying a controversial renaissance. This weekend the mayor of Csókako, a picturesque village west of Budapest, inaugurated a bust of the admiral, flanked by far-right supporters in military-style uniforms.

The Csókako memorial is the latest of a wave of Horthy memorials. The town square in Gyömro, has been renamed for him. Horthy’s Alma Mater, the Reform College of Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, has put up a plaque to its former pupil. A former officer in the Austro-Hungarian navy, Miklós Horthy ruled Hungary between 1920 and October 1944 when he was toppled in a coup by Hungarian Arrow Cross Nazis. He is the most divisive and controversial figure in modern Hungarian history. Another statue of him, in Kereki, a village near Lake Balaton, has already been doused in red paint. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Budapest on June 17th to protest against his rehabilitation.

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Den 16 januari skriver nyhetsbyrån Reuters:

About 1,000 Hungarians attended the unveiling of a statue of controversial World War Two head of state Miklos Horthy on Saturday, in a sign that economic hardship is feeding radical nationalism. Activists in paramilitary outfits flew the flags of the far-right Jobbik opposition party and various nationalist groups in the village of Csokako, 87 km (54 miles) west of Budapest, which has erected the statue

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Och Washington Post rapporterar den 18 juni om en av följderna:

Nobelpristagaren Elie Wiesel

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel says he’s repudiating a Hungarian award he received in 2004 because top officials from Budapest recently attended a ceremony for a Nazi sympathizer. The memorial rite weeks ago offended the 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, whose parents and sister were sent to their deaths by wartime Hungarian officials.

“It’s too close to home,” Wiesel told The Associated Press in an interview last week. Wiesel said in a letter to Hungarian Parliamentary Speaker Laszlo Kover that he doesn’t want to be associated with activities such as the May 27 ceremony for Jozsef Nyiro, a World War II member of Hungary’s parliament whom Wiesel calls a “fascist ideologue” and “an anti-Semite.” “It is with profound dismay and indignation that I learned of your participation,” along with Hungarian Secretary of State for Culture Geza Szocs and Gabor Vona, the leader of the far-right Jobbik party, Wiesel wrote.

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Yad Vashem skriver om Horthy bland annat:

"Horthy, Miklos (1868--1957), Leader of Hungary from 1920 to 1944. During World War I, Horthy served in the Austro-Hungarian navy. In 1920 he took control of the Hungarian government and adopted the title "regent." Horthy's government was antisemitic and invoked a Numerus Clausus (quota) law of September 1920, which restricted the number of Jews who could attend university. In fact, Hungary was the first government in post-World War I Europe to issue such a restriction."