Tens of thousands of Hungarians rallied in Budapest on Sunday to protest against growing anti-Semitism in the country. The annual March of the Living came two weeks ahead of the World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in the Hungarian capital.
The march usually has a few thousand participants but attracted a much bigger crowd this year, with thousands walking from a square near Parliament along the river Danube, carrying Israeli and European Union flags. “We have more people here than ever, but this means that there is big trouble,” Gabor Gordon, chief organizer of the event told the crowd. “Racism, anti-Semitism… we need to stop these while we can.”
A far-right association of motor cyclists had also planned a rally for Sunday, but Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered his interior minister to ban the motorcade under the motto 'Give Gas' from proceeding on the day when the country remembers the death of more than 500,000 Hungarian Jews in Nazi death camps in World War II. Orbán has said no event should be allowed that could hurt the dignity of the participants of the March of the Living.
