In Hungary

Jobbik (headed by its 39 year old, President, History Teacher and “Psychologist”, Gabor Vona) was a Hungarian, radical Nationalist, Conservative and Right-Wing Populist movement which was Anti-Globalist just like PEGIDA and AfD and various Right Wing fringe groups that worked to the benefit of Vladimir Putin by undermining NATO and the UN.

Prior to Jobbik, Gabor Vona belonged to the conservative Right Wing populist, Fidesz party (aka Alliance of Young Democrats / Hungarian Civic Alliance founded -1988-subsequently morphed in 1995 to the Hungarian Civic Party). The Fidesz party was started by University students forced to meet in secret groups to avoid being targeted by the Communist Party. Originally, the group was viewed as liberal given its focus on democratic ideals but it soon became Conservative after the 1994 election loss with only 7.02 % of the popular vote. When Fidesz first started their membership was under the age of thirty-five until the Hungarian government viewed this as a form of ageism hence undemocratic.  Their youth group was known as “Fidelitas”.   Gabor Vona stayed with Fidesz for three years from 2001 though 2003.

In 2006, British Born Hungarian- American, Sebastian Gorka, spoke of taking fragments of Jobbik and Fidesz and forming a new group. In August 2007, according to Lili Bayer of the April 3, 2017 article, [i] “Controversial Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka Backed Violent Anti-Semitic Militia in the forward.com ,  Gorka appeared on Hungarian television with Magyar Gárda ( aka The Hungarian Guard ) founded by Gabor Vona that same year. ; The Hungarian Guard is a Neofascist Paramilitary group denounced by the Hungarian government and European Court of Human Rights and subsequently disbanded in 2009 on legal grounds of promoting illegal institutionalized racism, two years after its short-lived founding. In addition to the menacing, polarizing rhetoric, The Hungarian Guard was feared also because of their black Darth Vader-like vests, red and white Arpad flag reminiscent of the Nazis in 1944 and Arrow Cross of World War II.  Gorka was dismissive of the suggestion when questioned on Echo TV in Hungary, stating that no one questioned the “fascist” black shirts of the Hungarian police and dismissed as well the concerns of Hungarian jews wary of the anti-Semitic wave that had begun permeating once again throughout Europe.

And so it was, that in 2007, Sebastian Gorka , a future Senior Trump Advisor and future Chief “Counter-Terrorism” Advisor to the future Trump Administration appeared on Hungarian Television two years before the dismantling of the Jobbik-Fidesz Initiative (2009) to discuss how The Hungarian Guard was an effort directed at a “big societal need” , alluding to Hungary’s official military as being anemic at best and a reflection of a sick Hungarian society. Banners appeared during the Hungarian tv program on Echo TV with the headline : “UDK supports the Hungarian Guard”.   UDK was an acronym for the party of Gorka (founded by Gorka and colleague, Mr Molnár ), known more widely as The New Democratic Coalition . In September 2007 , the UDK party issued a statement that critics of the Hungarian Guard were underhandedly propped up by Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor , US Representative and California Democrat, Tom Lantos and that accusations of anti-Semiticism were “the very useful tool of a certain political class.” [ii]

According to an article in the Hungarian Free Press that breaks down the “meteoric rise” of Sebastian Gorka , Republican terrorism analyst, Michael S. Smith II, who has lended his level of expertise to the White House and Congress, dubbed Sebastian Gorka on Twitter as a #FakeTerrorismExpert and compared Gorka’s level of expertise to that of a “Congressional Intern”.  Mr. Smith went on to conclude that he was “stunned” that Congressman Pittenger relied on Gorka professional opinion and testimony on an Intelligence-Security forum orchestrated by Pittenger that had invited Jobbik’s MP , Mr. Márton Gyöngyösi, a pro-Iranian, anti-Semite to attend as well as Mr Molnár, a colleague and cofounder of Gorka’s New Democratic Coalition and frequent contributor to kuruc.info Gorka far-right propaganda registered in California perhaps as an active measure to against California Democrat , Hungarian born Holocaust survivor, Rep Tom Lantos.  Incidentally, kuruc.info was on the FBI watch list. Mr. Márton Gyöngyösi , on the other hand, was best known for compiling an alleged list of Jews in Hungary when the Hungarian government would not furnish one.[iii]

And so it went that all of these unsavory characters linked with Nazis in Hungary and throughout eastern EU, Gorka, Gyöngyösi and Molnár informed the perhaps “useful idiot” Rep Pittenger of North Carolina of their expertise on “Counterterrorism” when only in 2014, (three years earler) Rep Pittenger had called for “draconian sanctions” against Russia for its military intervention , a violation of international law, in the Crimean Peninsula. According to Franco Ordoñez of the McClatchy Washington Bureau author of The Charlotte Observer article, “ No More love for Russia? Rep. Robert Pittenger now wants ‘draconian’ sanctions”: Pittenger had met with Russian leaders in Vienna (February 2014) to discuss approaches to handling terror threats, when just one month earlier he had hosted the Russian ambassador, (assumed to be Kislyak ) at a World Affairs Council dinner and forum for shared geopolitical and economic objectives in North Carolina.[iv] This is not normal.  In 2014, Pittenger had posed the question of who Putin would target next, asking if it would be Lithuania or Latvia after Crimea  or what was not claimed by Russia yet in Georgia. Pittenger supported President Obama’s sanctions back then so why the sudden change of heart ?  Perhaps his ambitions and loyalty rested on the US oil industry supplying oil to Ukraine instead of Russia being their source of petrol?  So what happened within those three years after he had called for sanctions against Russia to cause him to consider those who shared Vladimir Putin’s world view as “experts” on Counter Terrorism in the best interest of the National Security of the United States ?

Lastly, in October 2017, Hungary held a “conference for persecuted Christians”, according to Anna Nemtsova in her 11/09/17 Daily Beast article[v] , “How Putin’s Using Hungary to Destroy Europe” and it was there that Alt-Right supporters in both Hungary and Russia felt validated for their beliefs that islamic immigration causes a denial of one’s Christian roots and that Multiculturalism was one of the restrictive confines of “evil liberalism”. Surkov and other friends of Gorka and Putin praised the Conference arranged by Fidesz party Nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban who appealed to many Far Right American Putin- Apologists s as well. These are just a few of the current active measures in play.[vi]

“Everyone from Venezuela to China who believes the West is degenerate and rotted by homosexuality has Putin as their poster boy,” says Daniel Hannan [vii]

[i] Lili Bayer, Forward, “Exclusive: Controversial Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka backed violent anti-semitic militia”, April 3, 2017, https://forward.com/news/national/367937/exclusive-controversial-trump-aide-sebastian-gorka-backed-violent-anti-semi/

[ii] Lili Bayer, Forward, “Exclusive: Controversial Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka backed violent anti-semitic militia”, April 3, 2017, https://forward.com/news/national/367937/exclusive-controversial-trump-aide-sebastian-gorka-backed-violent-anti-semi/

[iii] Hungarian Free Press, “Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s counterterrorism adviser and the Hungarian far-right”, March 2, 2017, http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/03/02/sebastian-gorka-president-trumps-counterterrorism-adviser-and-the-hungarian-far-right/

[iv] Franco Ordoñez, Charlotte Observer, “No more love for Russia? Rep. Robert Pittenger now wants ‘draconian’ sanctions”, March 5, 2014, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article9102053.html

[v] Anna Nemtsova, The Daily Beast, “How Putin’s Using Hungary to Destroy Europe”, November 09, 2017, https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-putins-using-hungary-to-destroy-europe

[vi] Anna Nemtsova, The Daily Beast, “How Putin’s Using Hungary to Destroy Europe”, November 09, 2017, https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-putins-using-hungary-to-destroy-europe

[vii] Owen Matthews, Newsweek, “The Kremlin campaign to make friends”, February 16, 2015, http://www.newsweek.com/2015/02/27/kremlins-campaign-make-friends-307158.html