Hungary: Fidesz intellectuals believe Son of Saul proves there is no antisemitism in Hungary

From a few months ago, via Hungarian Free Press:

On a popular television news talk show called Civil Kaszinó, which airs on the right-wing HírTV network, pro-government intellectuals managed to come up with a remarkably passive aggressive response to something that should have been positive news for all Hungarians: namely, that László Nemes’ film Son of Saul (Saul fia) won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival.

(...)

But in responding to Mr. Nemes’ success, the most prominent public thinkers behind the Orbán government managed to drag up every antisemitic misconception and prejudice that exists and thrives in Hungary today, namely:

• Jews dominate all film festivals and the movie industry in general, so it’s “clever” to produce films on the Holocaust;

• Yet again, another Hungarian work on a Jewish topic wins an international prize, but there seems to be no interest in non-Jewish Hungarian history;

• Hopefully critics of the Orbán government will stuff it, because this film proves that the “accusation” of there being growing antisemitism in Hungary is clearly false.

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