Hungarian Jews ask PM Orban to end 'bad dream' of anti-Semitism

[Behind the Aegis]

Hungarian Jews said on Thursday Prime Minister Viktor Orban's billboard campaign against migration and foreign influence, using the image of U.S. financier George Soros, was a proxy for anti-Semitism.

They urged the nationalist Orban to halt the campaign. "Please make sure this bad dream ends as soon as possible," Andras Heisler, chairman of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Federations (Mazsihisz), said in an emailed statement.

Orban's spokesman said the campaign had nothing to do with anti-Semitism but rather sought only to counter what he called Soros's attempts to unduly change immigration policies in Hungary.

Orban has locked horns with fellow European Union members in the west of the bloc over his opposition to immigration and liberal values and has criticized Soros - a major supporter of democracy and human rights causes - in increasingly sharp tones.

Orban, who faces elections next year, long proclaimed zero tolerance for anti-Semitism though has more recently risked angering Israel and Jews with remarks apparently meant to court far right voters.

His government has conducted a "national consultation" on issues of foreign influence and mass immigration, asking people if they were open to allowing either. Voters who responded rejected both and Orban launched a massive follow-up campaign.

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