Editor of Hungarian Pro-Government News Site Quits Over Neo-Nazi Links

A story published on Jelen Magazine and other news sites such as Telex.hu and 444.hu has prompted the resignation of Tamás Horváth, the editorial head recently appointed at Vasarnap, a Christian website partly financed by the Hungarian government. 

The Jelen Magazine article, titled “Antisemitic, far-right Vasarnap fills up with government money,” was written by Dóra Ónody-Molnár. 

In her piece, Ónody-Molnár describes the networks of Vasarnap’s editor in chief and neo-Nazi organisations such as the previously existing “Erő és Elszántság” (Force and Determination). With the help of the infographic below, the article also traces the links between other journalists on the portal and various far-right groups, as well as the sources of government money supporting the website. After his connections with these far-right networks were exposed, Tamas Horváth resigned from his position just weeks after taking up the post. 

Vasarnap’s links to the government and the far right did not begin and end with the now former editor in chief. Below is a translation of the sections of the Jelen article that refer to the infographic, with some additional explanations: 

The website is published by the Zoltán K. Kovács Foundation, named after a founder of the István Barankovics Foundation. The Barankovics Foundation, which belongs to the Christian Democratic Party (KDNP) - the junior party in the ruling coalition - also appears as a sponsor on the Vasarnap website, as does the National Cooperation Fund [a government funding body for civil organisations]. The chairman of the Hungarian Treasury, Dr József Mészáros, acts on behalf of the Barankovics Foundation, which was registered in 2018.  

The Barankovics Foundation’s stated aim is to create a Christian platform and promote light music — for which it gets considerable state support. The Prime Minister’s Office gave the foundation 38 million forints (£90,000) in June to promote communication relating to Christian persecution — on top of the 21.5 million forints (£50,600) it gave in 2019 for this purpose. [The Hungarian government has made much of the support it gives to persecuted Christians, for example in Syria.] According to the organisation’s report the Gábor Bethlen Fund Management Company awarded it a total of 104 million forints (£245,000) in two instalments between April 2019 and March 2020. The Barankovics Foundation was also given 100 million forints (£235,000) by the Ministry of Human Resources last year to promote Christian light music.  

The subject of persecution is handled by S4C (Stand for Christians), a formerly independent website that is now a subpage of Vasarnap. Péter Kovács-Pifka, who is on the board of Kovács Foundation, which publishes the website, has since February been the managing director of Hungary Helps, which assists persecuted Christians.  

In addition to financial support, the website’s close links to the government are confirmed by the fact that, as it was previously published at hvg.hu, “state secretaries and government commissioners pen articles there, and anyone who strays on to the website will come across government propaganda.” 

A further examination of the names writing for Vasarnap is highly revealing. The backgrounds and views of the authors encompass the whole spectrum of Hungarian far-right groups, from the Betyársereg (Army of Outlaws) and the Legio Hungaria, the largest far-right organisation in the country, to the Zöldinges Világnézeti Műhely (Green-Shirt Ideology Workshop), the Hungarian neo-Nazi organisation that celebrates the wartime fascist leader Ferenc Szálasi. [ed. The Hungarian fascists wore green shirts].  

Alongside the departure of Vasarnap’s editor in chief, another staff member by the name of Adonis Kassab on the S4C page was dismissed. Kassab also edits the website Orientalista.hu, which is hostile to the West and to Israel, and the anti-Israeli material is happily republished by the news portal Szentkoronaradio.hu (Holy Crown Radio). This portal is linked to the Hatvannégy Vármegye Ifjúsági Mozgalom (Sixty-four Counties Youth Movement) founded by László Toroczkai. Toroczkai is the leader of the Mi Hazánk Mozgalom party (Our Homeland Movement), and Kassab regularly made reports and podcasts for Vasarnap with Toroczkai and other big names in the party, such as Előd Novák and Dóra Dúró.  

The Hungarian television channel RTL revealed that Kassab is of mixed Hungarian and Syrian heritage. “He joined his first political party, Jobbik, in 2006, and in 2007 was elected chairman of the party organisation in the Ferencvaros district of Budapest. He was one of the first 56 members of the Magyar Gárda (Hungarian Guard) to take their oath on the Holy Crown. He worked for Jobbik’s foreign affairs cabinet, mainly handling eastern relations because of his background. In 2009 he was elected deputy chairman of the party in Budapest,” ran the RTL report. 

Kristóf Keresztély Trombitás, who is on the staff of Vasarnap, also works as a presenter on Hir TV, a news channel with close ties to the government. The weekly Magyar Narancs wrote that Trombitás is “the most recent favourite of NER, the System of National Cooperation [ed. Fidesz’s government framework for “national unity”]. A couple of years ago he was still a liberal, but today he wants to cure gay people.” Trombitás is in contact with the editors of the Green-Shirt Ideology Workshop, and through them with the Legio Hungaria. 

The Green-Shirt Ideology Workshop is a successor of the now defunct fascist Pax Hungarica; it flies the Pax Hungarica flag and maintains close ties with its former leaders. Péter Szász was a member of Pax between 2010 and 2012. His Lenten thoughts between 26 February and 5 March this year have been posted on the FB page of Szabad Szellem – Magyar Kultúra Alapítvány (Free Spirit — Hungarian Culture Foundation) which has links to the editorial team of the Green-Shirt Ideology Workshop. That foundation is also connected to the Legio Hungaria, which says that support for the foundation is in effect support for the Legio. 

One curious detail that has emerged concerned Dániel Gyenge, a journalist on Neokohn.hu, the website which unmasked Tamás Horváth’s links with the far right. It turns out that a couple of years ago Gyenge himself moved in the hardest far-right circles. When these connections were revealed by Vasarnap, in a sort of revenge for the article that brought the website into disrepute, the journalist apologised for his past actions, while Neokohn distanced itself from the matter.  

At the same time, as the graphic shows, Gyenge has maintained his links with these circles. On Facebook he has liked the blog Toxikus Maszkulinitás (Toxic Masculinity) set up recently by Béla Incze, the leader of Legio Hungaria, and ZugTáltos (Shady Shaman), the Facebook page of the Hatvannégy Vármegye Ifjúsági Mozgalom. In addition, he is Facebook friends with Péter Szász, of Pax Hungarica fame. These connections suggest that the journalist has maintained his links with the far right even while working for Neokohn, which has links to the Hungarian Lubavitch organisation. 

Another writer for Vasanap, Márton Chvála, was a member of Erő és Elszántság (Force and Determination) in 2017, which was set up by Zsolt Tyirityán’s Betyársereg. Chvála also maintains close ties with members of the Green-Shirt Ideology Workshop and took part in the Third Green-Shirt Ideology Workshop camp near Miskolc, in north-east Hungary in 2021.  

Fidesz does not want to give up even on the most extreme voters, and it seems that one of the channels for reaching those extreme types is Vasarnap.hu.