Looking for political asylum in Europe for being
a neo-nazi doesn't sound like something that should work out. But
there are quite a few who have tried. Maybe out of desperation but
certainly with hope of success. Lets take for instance the most
recent and public case of Horst Mahler: a 81 year old former left
wing activist, RAF co-founder and now right wing nationalist from
Germany who denies holocaust. Due to his health condition he was
temporarily released from prison, where he served time for
demagoguery, and fled to Hungary. In a personal letter to Victor
Orban Mahler asked for political asylum but with an European arrest
warrant pending he was extradited back to Germany.
Even though no
asylum was granted it is exemplary for Hungary's position concerning
refugees and asylum seekers. With over 70% of Hungarians voting right
it is the single most restrictive country in Europe. While asylum
seekers from outside of Europe are not welcome Orban has a clear
massage to European “refugees”, as he states in the annual speech
to the nation in Budapest on the 10th
of February 2017:
“We
will of course be letting in genuine refugees: Germans, Dutch, French
and Italians, terrified politicians and journalists, Christians who
have been forced to leave their homes and who here in Hungary want to
find the Europe they have lost in their homelands"
This
statement is a clear invitation for “concerned” citizens of all
European countries and it's accepted by a lot of well known right
wing activists. For example Nick Griffin, form 1999 until 2014 head
of the British National Party, who planned on moving to Hungary using
the words:
“I hope that Hungary, the Hungarian government, the Hungarian people, will welcome people who are genuine refugees from western Europe but keep out the liberals who have brought western Europe to this state in the first place.”
However, he - just like Mahler - was banned in May 2017.
Non the less there others like Daniel Frieberg, a Swedish right wing activist who was charged with demagoguery, moved to Budapest and set up Arktos, a publisher of right literature where he published his own book “The Real Right Returns”. He stands like no one else for an united European right wing movement and even has connections to the USA, which he showed publicly by visiting Charlottesville and talking to alt-right as well as Ku-Klux-Klan members.
Ferenc Almassy is another example. The French right wing activist moved to Hungary as well and tries to get European nationalists to working together. In an interview with the French-German TV station Arte he says about Orban: “He is like a fox. He is smart and has a good sens of when to say what. He walks on the red line without crossing it and does everything he can to move that line further and further.”
“I hope that Hungary, the Hungarian government, the Hungarian people, will welcome people who are genuine refugees from western Europe but keep out the liberals who have brought western Europe to this state in the first place.”
However, he - just like Mahler - was banned in May 2017.
Non the less there others like Daniel Frieberg, a Swedish right wing activist who was charged with demagoguery, moved to Budapest and set up Arktos, a publisher of right literature where he published his own book “The Real Right Returns”. He stands like no one else for an united European right wing movement and even has connections to the USA, which he showed publicly by visiting Charlottesville and talking to alt-right as well as Ku-Klux-Klan members.
Ferenc Almassy is another example. The French right wing activist moved to Hungary as well and tries to get European nationalists to working together. In an interview with the French-German TV station Arte he says about Orban: “He is like a fox. He is smart and has a good sens of when to say what. He walks on the red line without crossing it and does everything he can to move that line further and further.”
With
arguments that are made to move that red line of what is tolerable
further to the extreme, it is important to remember that the
discussion can be brought back to a more fundamental level. Human rights always apply to everyone and can not be repealed.
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