Jobbik's third place is not likely to be in danger in the by-elections held in Ferencváros, for Emese John of the Free Democrats withdrew last week. Although the radical Csanád Szegedi received fewer votes than the number of registration nomination slips he had managed to collect earlier, the results of the first round (8.5 percent) were the best the formation had ever reached. It was in Ferencváros that Jobbik first proved that it was organized like a professional party. "We managed to collect five hundred registration nomination slips in the course of the first weekend, and were able to work with a suitable number of activists," Előd Novák tells us proudly. It was he who - as a member of his party's local electoral committee - exposed the affair of the fake registration nomination slips, thus preventing the candidates of MIÉP and the Hungarian Social Green Party from participating. In his interview for Heti Válasz, Novák makes it absolutely clear that the billboards, which are the most spectacular campaign tools of Jobbik, were financed from donations (See our writing in frame, entitled: What does the Jobbik party subsist on?).

Galaxy of radicals

Members of Jobbik hope to repeat their success at this year's European Parliamentary elections and at the Hungarian general elections next spring. All the people we talked to said the most important precondition for this was the building of social networks. And this is going on full steam at the moment, leaning on the national radical sub-culture that has grown strong in Hungary in the past few years. Those who cultivate baranta, the Hungarian martial art, those who read "nationalistic" homepages, and those who are interested in "our hushed-up prehistory" can all find something interesting in the Jobbik-galaxy. Slowly, an alternative world is developing, and those of our compatriots who believe that the Hungarian people have been betrayed and abandoned don't even have to leave this universe. They can vote for Jobbik at the elections, they can get information from the internet homepage barikad.hu, which functions as the party's semi-official bulletin, they can keep themselves fit among the ranks of the Hungarian Guard, which operates under the guardianship of this organisation, in shops founded and owned by members of Jobbik, they can choose between T-shirts with the mythological Turul bird, and baseball-caps with the Miraculous Deer (Csodaszarvas) on them, also, they can learn "real" history at the King Atilla Folk High School, dreamt up by the radical formation. (See our writing in frame, entitled Atilla, the king.)

God and the National Security Office

This is not the first time that a party of the extreme-right has started building its own system of institutions. The difference lies in the fact that - owing to the earlier life and habits of István Csurka - the background world of MIÉP (István Bocskai Free University, the paper Magyar Fórum) centered very much around culture and literature. Jobbik has found a theme that interests a much larger group than the dwindling number of MIÉP adherents, who draw on the heritage of the folk movement's rightist side and Hungarian racist ideology, and this is "Roma criminality". The Hungarian Guard, which is based on this, is the most successful unit of the portfolio. The significant media coverage that the Hungarian Guard has received recently gives it an enormous advantage regarding its aspirations of getting into parliament. "It was not for PR reasons that the Guard came into being, but to serve the nation and revive the Levente Movement (translator's note: nationalistic, para-military youth movement between the two World Wars.). We never thought there would be such a to-do around the Guard", says Gábor Szabó, party director of Jobbik and founder of the Hungarian Guard Association, which was recently disbanded by the court of first instance. Several members of the party never thought so either: the former chairman, Dávid Kovács, left the party last year, along with two other founders, because "Jobbik had inseparably been connected to the guard, taking responsibility for something that - in the long run - it could not keep under control."

The first instance which proved they had lost control over the guard happened last autumn. Even though they said István Dósa had been "sent by God or the National Security Office"; we cannot know this, but it is a fact that his father was the last commander-in-chief of the Workers' Militia - the leaders of the radical party were satisfied with the work of the captain, who has since left Jobbik. Nothing similar has happened since, but even supporters of the Guard think that there is a possibility for a sudden explosion. Pessimists say a clash between the Guards and the Romas might happen quite soon - just recently, the Albert Wass battalion of the Little Hungarian Plain (Kisalföld) organised a live fire-manoeuvre, which one doesn't really know where to put, for when the guard was founded, the frame of reference included blood donation, ragweed extermination and tending of war graves.

Not only does the Hungarian Guard serve the strengthening of the party's image, but it is also a means of securing new cadres. According to our Jobbik sources, a significant proportion of guard members join the party after a while. Jobbik is experiencing a boom at the moment: on average, about three organisations are formed each week, and the number of party members is around three thousand. The general staff of Jobbik reckon they stand a good chance at the general elections of 2010 only if their present number of 250 groups rises to four hundred by the end of the year. As for their territorial impregnation, it is only partly identical with the former positions of MIÉP:: similarly to Csurka's party, Jobbik has also become a factor in Pest county, but in the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, only the latter is strong. The neo-radicals are well-organized in the counties of Nógrád, Borsod and Békés, in other words, where there is a large Roma population; in these counties the party has quite a few small, village groups. They are a lot weaker in Transdanubia: in 2004, at the Sopron by-elections, they only managed to get one percent, while in the constituency of Szécsény, in Nógrád county, they got almost four percent.

Moscow shows the way

It is not only in the way that it organises sub-culture that Jobbik differs from the older radical party of MIÉP: the most evident difference can be seen in the way they handle foreign affairs. Both parties are anti-American and anti-Israeli, yet on the part of Jobbik, there is also a line that supports the current policy of Moscow (for example, in the case of Georgia or the Russian-Ukranian gas dispute). We asked Gábor Vona, the party's chairman, whether it was not a contradiction that while they were trying to abolish the post-Communistic webs of secret service in Hungary, in their foreign policy, they welcome the line of Vladimir Putin, former KGB officer. "I do not wish to take a stand regarding Russian internal politics. Like every superpower, Russia has its faults, but since the national interest of Hungary is the most important for us, it is our duty to have good relations with this important market", says Vona.

The first man of Jobbik visited Moscow recently (he analysed the relationship between Russia and Europe at a conference organised by "a group representing national traditions"); in spring he plans to return and meet parliamentary representatives. It is advisable to be cautious, for Russia has no scruples when it comes to gaining influence in its former satellite states. The Polish prime minister, Józef Oleksy, had to resign from his post in 1995 when it came to light that he had had ties with a Soviet/Russian secret agent. The Czech secret service recently published a report according to which there is a direct connection - of a financial nature - between certain diplomats of the Russian Embassy in Prague and the circles that protested against the American missile defense system being hosted in the Czech Republic. Well, the man behind Jobbik's emerging friendship with Russia, Béla Kovács, head of the party's foreign affairs committee, is almost unknown to the general public. According to our sources, Kovács, who is at present a "businessman", completed his studies in Moscow, during the former political era; it was he who organised the visit to Budapest of Nick Griffin, chairman of the British National Party, and also a Russophile, who enjoys the trust and confidence of Jobbik, a party that is still a newcomer on the international political stage.  

Atilla, the king

"Either we manage to retrieve the honour of Christianity and the unique culture of Hungary, or we melt into the globalized world and lose everything that is valuable which can make the country stronger and richer again, and let it feel proud of being Christian and Hungarian", so reads the deed of foundation of the Royal Atilla Folk High School, an educational initiative of Jobbik. According to educational ombudsman Lajos Aáry-Tamás, the institution has not been accredited by the state, and is thus no more a school than is a table society. This does not stop those who wish to spread their knowledge: there are now some 1000-1500 people participating at courses which commenced last autumn in fifteen different points all over the country. There is no fee, the costs are financed from donations and from the one percent tax offered to the foundation that maintains the school; last year, this amount was four million forints. There is no information about the lecturers, according to the homepage of the folk high school, the reason for this is that until one registers for the courses, there is no possibility for this at universities either (but this, of course, is not true).

The fact that, at the "opening ceremony" of the academic year, held last September, the writer-publicist Péter Szentmihályi Szabó gave an opening speech about Christian morals, the rock musician-journalist-expert of runic writing, Gábor Szakács, talked about our national symbols, Dániel Z. Kárpát, editor-in-chief of the periodical Kárpátia, spoke about the challenges we must face in the 21st century, and István Kiszely, archeologist-historian, related great Hungarian battles that ended in our victory - all these give us an idea of what type of school this is. István Kiszely is the director general of the folk high school, and this is all the more surprising since his activities during the Kádár-regime throw a light of suspicion on his person. We can find out from the joint work of Gábor Tabajdi and Krisztián Ungváry, entitled The hushed-up past - the single-party state and the Ministry of Interior, that the secret service recruited Kiszely in 1960, and under the name of "Zsolt Feledy", he reported to his contact officers up until the change of the political system; in return, he was allowed to travel abroad quite frequently. In his case, the statement "I never did anyone any harm" is not credible: in his workfile, there are 79 reports on Father Placid Olofsson, who was formerly an inhabitant of the Gulag. With his reports, Kiszely contributed to his former classmate, Catholic priest Frigyes Hagemann, being sentenced to five years' imprisonment in 1971. His only "crime" had been that he had actively participated in youth work - Kiszely reported on him even after he was released from prison.

What does the Jobbik party subsist on?

Jobbik maintains that it belongs to the poorer parties. There is a membership-fee, but that remains with the local groups. It finances the maintenance of its headquarters and its expenses from donations. "From the end of 2004 to the beginning of 2007 we practically lived on air.  Things changed with the formation of the Hungarian Guard. That was when small and medium-sized enterprises started to contact us, saying they wanted to help", said party director Gábor Szabó. When we interjected, asking how they could afford billboards in Ferencváros, Szabó replied that their campaign had cost 800 thousand forints, and their field work was based on volunteers and the helping hands of friends. They expect some improvement from the agreement with MIÉP - for the dispute about the distribution of state support has not yet been resolved. In 2006, the two parties took part in the elections together, under the name of the Third Route (Harmadik Út), and on the basis of the two percent that they reached, the electoral coalition is entitled to an annual subsidy of 38 million forints. If they conclude an agreement, Jobbik may receive a few million forints before the European Parliamentary campaign. The radicals are sure that this won't be money thrown out the window: one of them tells us that they already call Krisztina Morvai, who is at the top of the list, an MEP (Member of the European Parliament). If this were true, there might be serious tension within the party regarding salaries, for members of the European Parliament will receive a monthly salary of nine thousand euros as of the next cycle, while Jobbik does not even have full-time staff.

The candidate of the by-elections of Ferencváros, party vice-chairman Csanád Szegedi, is co-owner, together with Gábor Szabó, of Szkíta Hadúr Ltd., which produces and distributes Turul-brand products (from Scythian shirts to "baseball caps with Turuls of Rakamaz on them"). Supposedly, this is not yet a lucrative business: the owners, in other words, the leading politicians of the "third force", stand behind the counter of the company's shop.

There is business potential in the Hungarian Guard. The present capitain-general, Róbert Kiss, is one of the owners of the Hungarian Guard Pest County Security Ltd., which deals with shipping, the leasing of property and the protection of persons, while another founder of the Hungarian Guard, Péter Schön, has a company with a similar profile, called Hungarian Guard Safety Engineering and Security Ltd.