Pastor attacked in Budapest, condemnations by Serbia,Hungary

NOVI SAD - Speaker of the Vojvodina Assembly and leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) Istvan Pastor was attacked in Budapest and the parties in Serbia and Hungary fiercely condemned the attack by Hungarian right-wing extremists, members of the Jobbik party.

Pastor told Tanjug that he was attacked on Tuesday, May 6, some time around 1 p.m. after he left the Hungarian parliament, adding that he was attacked by members of the extremist right-wing party Jobbik who were protesting at the plateau in front of the parliament building and who started shouting insults as soon as they saw him.

”The attack was orchestrated at the spot by means of a megaphone and they shouted insults at me calling me a traitor, and then a dozen people approached me and started shoving and spitting at me,” Pastor said.

He noted that he managed to get out of the crowd somehow and he underscored that he is most disappointed by the fact that nobody came to help him.

Hungarian news portal Origo reported that protesters in front of the parliament building spotted Pastor at the Lajos Kossuth Square and stopped him, called his a Bolshevik and spat at him.

The portal reported that former Jobbik MP Tamas Gaudi-Nagy called Pastor through the megaphone and the people gathered around Gaudi-Nagy attacked him.

The attack was fiercely condemned by political parties in Serbia and Hungary which stated that this incident constitutes an unprecedented provocation.

”We are shocked by the politically motivated attack on Pastor,” released the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) as the central party in the government coalition formed after the March 16 elections, which also includes SVM headed by Pastor.

“We...