Fascism in the Contemporary World

rary Hungary has some racist overtones. African, Arab, and Asian students are being attacked by skinhead gangs with increasing frequency (Attacks, 1192, p. 216). The skinheads are young people who carry "symbols of the Arrow Cross, Hungary's 1940s﷓era fascist group," and affect s.s.﷓style trappings" (Husarska, 1992, p. 10). As a consequence, many foreign students are leaving Hungary (Woodard, 1992, p. A48). This exodus contributes to the attainment of the goal of exclusion pursued by right﷓wing political groups in Hungary. Hungary is already a country with only two minority groups of any significant size. There are approximately half﷓a﷓million Gypsies and 80,000 Jews living in Hungary (Kenez, 1992, p. 6).The primary "repository of nationalist thought is the Center﷓Right governing coalition" which is dominated by the Hungarian Democratic Forum (Kenez, 1992, p. 7). The Hungarian Democratic forum does not attempt to distinguish either the government or the party's policies from the pre﷓Second World War authoritarian government led by fascist Miklos Horthy (Kenez, 1992, p. 7). In fact, the current Hungarian government pursues highly nationalistic policies. The chief rival of the Hungarian Democratic Forum for political power within the ruling Center﷓right coalition is a fascist group led by Istvan Csurka, who also acts as vice﷓president of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (Kenez, 1992, p. 7). Csurka advances views that are both anti﷓democratic and anti﷓Semitic, and his group is both wildly anti﷓communist and anti﷓liberal (Kenez, 1992, p. 7). Csurka's group "vilify all their opponents with extraordinarily passion, often in language hardly suitable for decent political discourse. They portray them as traitors" (Kenez, 1992, p. 7).At present, the Hungarian media, although managed by the government, presents a balance in political discourse. Cs...