Hungary politician resigns top positions over recording of anti-Semitic act

Jobbik party member Istvan Szavay caught on tape admitting to verbally and physically assaulting a Jewish woman

By JTA 3 December 2018, 8:27 am

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Istvan Szavay of the opposition right-wing party Jobbik party participates in a parliament debate in Budapest, Hungary, April 19, 2017. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via AP)

A leader of the extremist Jobbik Party in Hungary resigned his leadership positions following the release of a recording of an admission of an anti-Semitic act.

Jobbik deputy group leader and parliamentary notary Istvan Szavay resigned his positions on Thursday, Hungary Today reported, though he will remain a member of Parliament.

Szavay is heard on the recording admitting to verbally and physically assaulting a Jewish woman, though he claims she started it.

“She was yelling, ‘Nazis are stinking here,’ and I just knocked her out, dirty Jew, pakk, just like this,” he said on the recording.

He said he did not actually physically harm the woman.

Jobbik is a xenophobic movement that the World Jewish Congress has termed “an extremist party promoting hate.” It is Hungary’s second-largest party with 26 out of 199 seats in parliament.