Because Orbán is having protests banned for the “Day of Honour”, organisations are cancelling bus trips to Budapest. The affected VVN-BdA is also under pressure in Germany – presumably because of Trump.

A week ago, the Vienna Concentration Camp Association reported that a bus trip planned for next Saturday with the German Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime – League of Anti-Fascists (VVN-BdA) and organisations from other countries to attend a memorial ceremony of the Hungarian Resistance Fighters Association (MEASZ) in Budapest had to be cancelled: the local authorities have banned the event, which was due to take place parallel to this year’s far-right “Day of Honour”.

The background is a new regulation by Victor Orbán’s government, according to which everything connected with anti-fascism is to be banned. Last year, Orbán had “the Antifa” declared a terrorist organisation.

The anti-fascist associations from Hungary, Germany and Austria wanted to hold an event at the “Day of Honour” at the Shoah memorial in the Hungarian capital once again. Since 2005, it has commemorated the murder of Budapest Jews by the fascist Arrow Cross members in 1944/1945 with 60 pairs of cast-iron shoes on the Danube embankment. The Hungarian Holocaust survivor Katalin Sommer was scheduled to speak there.

However, the associations do not want to forgo commemoration entirely: on Friday, there is a call for an event at the Martyrs’ Memorial in the Budapest district of Vizafogó. The International Federation of Resistance Fighters – League of Anti-Fascists, an international umbrella organisation, is also mobilising for this. However, participants would now have to organise travel to Budapest “individually”, according to the appeal. In Berlin, Dresden and Vienna, demonstrations are also planned outside Hungarian embassies and consulates against the authoritarian Orbán government.

The anti-fascist assembly ban in Hungary cannot be separated from the repression in the so-called Budapest complex: on 4 February, three more activists from Germany and Italy were convicted in the capital for attacks on actual or alleged neo-Nazis at the 2023 “Day of Honour”, including the non-binary person Maja T. The Hungarian government is closely following this trial, which is now going to appeal. A spokesperson had also posted about this several times on social media – and was thereby exposed to criticism for wanting to influence the conviction.

The International Federation of Resistance Fighters – League of Anti-Fascists also draws attention to this overarching repression by state and capital in a statement issued on Tuesday together with MEASZ, VVN-BdA and the Austrian Concentration Camp Association. In it, the anti-fascist associations criticise the latest verdict in the Budapest complex and the Hungarian government’s handling of the “Day of Honour”: this currently largest annual Nazi march in Europe represents a rehabilitation of the SS, Wehrmacht and Hungarian collaborators. Whilst all anti-fascist protests are banned at the behest of the Orbán government, neo-Nazi activities with historical SS uniforms, swastikas and other fascist symbols are expressly permitted.

However, the action against anti-fascism in Europe also has to do with developments in the USA: also last year, Donald Trump’s government had an “Antifa East”, which according to public prosecutors in Hungary and Germany is behind attacks such as those at the “Day of Honour” in Budapest or on Nazi structures in Thuringia and Saxony, placed on a terror sanctions list.

Presumably because of feared consequences, Sparkasse and the “ethical” GLS-Bank then terminated numerous accounts in Germany belonging to the financial solidarity organisation Rote Hilfe, which also collects donations for defendants in the “Antifa East” complex. It is speculated that the banks combed through payment references searching for word combinations containing “Antifa”.

This “debanking” now once again affects the VVN-BdA in Germany as well: Postbank intends to close accounts of four Berlin branches by 31 March 2026. The association made this known on Monday in a circular letter – and describes Postbank as a “compliant accomplice” of the Trump administration. According to this, the affected parties are the League of Anti-Fascists Treptow, the Berlin district association in Weißensee-Hohenschönhausen and the Berlin regional association of VVN-BdA itself.

Over the past two years, Postbank, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, has already terminated accounts of numerous district associations as well as the anti-fascist meeting centre Heideruh in Lower Saxony. However, the actual reasons for this “debanking” remain unclear – Postbank does not comment on this in response to enquiries from “nd”.

The VVN-BdA sees this as an attack on freedom of expression, the press and association as well as the right to social participation. The charitable status of the organisation and thus its social mission are being significantly hampered.

“Let it be said to our members, we’ll manage this”, the VVN-BdA also states on this matter. The organisation may possibly take the “debanking” to court. Rote Hilfe had won such an emergency proceeding against Sparkasse in January.

Published in German in „nd“.

Image: The annual anti-fascist commemoration at the “Shoes on the Danube Bank” memorial in Budapest will likely not take place this year – whilst the far-right “Day of Honour” is allowed to go ahead (Dennis G. Jarvis, Shoes on the Danube, CC BY-SA 2.0).