© Péter Szegő

Hungary is already dealing with a paralysed government and a prime minister with no credibility - and now it seems to be creating another problem for itself. The only purpose to this can be to divert attention from the growing coalition crisis. Kuruc.info, a website which publishes manifestly fascist articles, showed a video made by the blogger known as Tomcat at a Thursday press conference held by the Socialist MP Tibor Szanyi. The MP had called the perss conference to talk about a repeated far-right demonstration and a planned anti-fascist demonstration.

Earlier in the week, Tomcat had called on his readers to attend a "flashmob" in front of a ticket office at Hollo Erno utca 10. This ticket office had been set ablaze with Molotov cocktails by persons unknown. The owners of the ticket office had supposedly refused to serve a Hungarian girl. This girl had written to kuruc.info, which published her letter. The entire case is a clear instance of a far-right terrorist attack. Tomcat, whose day job is selling t-shirts on the Terez Korut, is a provocateur. His aim is to overstep the threshold of tolerance that a democracy must offer.

Tibor Szanyi held a press conference on Thursday which was disturbed by an unexpected incident. Tomcat started speaking, and the Socialist MP called him a liar and threatened to sue him for libel. The Hungarian blogger managed to sneak himself into the parliamentary office building by posing as a representative of the press.

Our most widely-read newspaper writes of demonstration, which is being held on Friday afternoon, and the planned counter-demonstration as a trial of strength. Ferenc Gyurcsany, the prime minister, is himself lending his weight to the counter-demonstration. The PM appears not to realise that by appearing he is lending credibility to something that should be a policing matter. Ibolya David, the president of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, chose instead to tell the demonstration's organisers that they should not go and demonstrate over something so ridiculous, and that Gyurcsany should be organising the police, not a demonstration.

Gyorgy Szabo, a local councillor in that district of Budapest, was one of the organisers of the counter-demonstration on Monday. Neo-Nazi threats forced him to move away with his family, and he is now under police protection. In his open letter to Gyurcsany, he writes that the PM should be avoiding extremist provocations at a time of economic and political crisis. Szabo calls on the PM not to go to the demonstration
on Friday and help the anti-fascist struggle by not taking part.

Opposition councillors from Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People's Party expressed their solidarity for the people of Budapest's 13th district. It is not worth responding to Tomcat and his hotheaded companions on a higher political level than that. In any case, it is time to bring an end to a situation where Tamas Polgar (alias Tomcat) can play with the media and paralysed state authorities like a cat with a mouse.

János Pelle