Pastor: Extremism unacceptable

BELGRADE - Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) leader Istvan Pastor, who was attacked by Hungarian ultranationalists in Budapest two days ago, believes that the attack was motivated by his condemnation of the activities of the right-wing Sixty-Four Counties movement in Vojvodina.

The extremist, pro-fascist Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement, named after the number of counties in the former Kingdom of Hungary, advocates a revision of the 1920 Treaty of Trianon and creation of a Greater Hungary that would annex a large part of Vojvodina, Serbia's northern province.

Pastor said that, irrespective of the attack in Budapest, he sees extremism as "unacceptable, whatever the consequences of condemning extremism may be."

"We (the SVM) are confident that we should - and can - resolve our common problems only by communicating and cooperating with those we live with," said Pastor, who is also the speaker of the Assembly of Vojvodina.

In a statement to Belgrade-based Politika daily, Pastor said that he is deeply shocked by the attack by members of Hungary's extreme right-wing Jobbik party, adding that it is unacceptable that anyone be attacked while paying an official visit to a country.

"I was a guest of the Hungarian president and the Hungarian parliament. As I was leaving a building, I was practically surrounded, verbally abused, shoved and spat at by people who see me as a traitor of the nation," Pastor said.

"Such conduct leads nowhere, or rather, we have seen over the past two decades where it can lead to," Pastor said.

Photo Tanjug Video, camera operator Djordje Spasic