Rising star of Hungarian Jobbik party forced to resign after he is exposed as being an Israeli instead of Hungarian.
He was a rising star in Hungary’s far-right Jobbik Party, and was notorious for his incendiary anti-semitic comments – including attacks on the ‘Jewishness’ of the political elite; but Csanad Szegedi’s
career as an ultra-nationalist standard bearer now looks to be over after the revelation that he is in fact Jewish.
Szegedi, who had in the past accused Jews of ‘buying up the country’, faced weeks of Internet rumours about his ancestry before acknowledging in June that his grandparents on his mother’s side were Jews.
It emerged that his grandfather was a forced labour camp veteran and that his grandmother was a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp.
Following the revelation the 30-year-old has been politically exiled from Jobbik, and his career has been left in ruins. He resigned from the party last month after concerted pressure.
Central to Szegedi’s fall from grace in the Jobbik party is an audio recording that dates from 2010 which he claims has been tampered with, but which the party believes is genuine.
On the tape a convicted felon, Zoltan Ambrus, is heard confronting Szegedi with evidence of his Jewish roots. He tells Szegedi that he has documents that prove he is of Jewish descent.
On the tape Szegedi allegedly offers Ambrus money to keep quiet about the documents.
After resigning from the Jobbik party last month Szegedi now faces pressure to give up his seat in the European Parliament as well.
