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MPs criminalise Holocaust denial |
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Written by Robert Hodgson
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Monday, 01 March 2010 |
Parliament voted to make Holocaust denial a criminal offence last Monday during the last plenary session before the general elections in April. Anyone who denies the gravity of crimes committed against European Jewry during the Second World War will be liable to up to three years’ imprisonment under the new legislation, which is due to come into effect 30 days after it was passed.
The new law is subject to review by Hungarian President László Sólyom, who has the power to return legislation to parliament for reconsideration, which means it could potentially face a second vote under a new parliament.
Fidesz wanted to go further
The centre-right opposition bloc, the Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance, did not take part in the final vote, which saw the legislation passed by 197 votes to 1 with 142 abstentions. A Fidesz motion to extend the law to cover the denial of all crimes against humanity, whether by wartime National Socialists or the subsequent Communist regime had earlier been rejected by 178 votes to 146, with seven abstentions. Coincidentally, 25 February is also Hungary’s official day of remembrance for the victims of Communism, a date that was set in 2000 when Fidesz was in power. The house speaker made a brief speech to mark the occasion in advance.
Péter Feldmájer, president of Hungary’s largest Jewish religious organisation Mazsihisz, and several Holocaust survivors were invited to attend the parliamentary session by the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). The legislation was tabled by the party’s prime ministerial candidate Attila Mesterházy. Some 450,000 Hungarian Jews are thought to have been transported to Nazi death camps during the closing months of the Second World War when Hungary was under the control of Nazi Germany and its puppet government the fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross.
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