Jobbik deputy leader resigns after recording surfaces of anti-Semitic act

Istvan Szavay stepped down from his positions as deputy group leader and parliamentary notary following the revelations

Members of the New Hungarian Guard stand at a Jobbik rally against a gathering of the World Jewish Congress in Budapest, 4 May 2013 Source: Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Michael Thaidigsmann

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.

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