Index – Belföld – “We should be happy that there is someone who stands up for the miserable s*ggets” – commented the independent candidate from Sopron

“The worms should be happy that for now there is only walking around! (…) You don’t seriously think, do you, that he acted because of the decently living and working gypsies? (…) Rats also have the opportunity to print on their t-shirts that I’m a sneaky g*ci knifer… ” – such comments were made by the independent candidate for mayor of Sopron, Endre Sovány, around whom he formed at the beginning of April this year, on a Facebook post in 2019 became a national political scandal, after the local organizations of the MSZP and Momentum, as well as the Mendiki Magyarországa Mozgalom, also supported it. When the start was announced, several of the local members of the aforementioned organizations were also present on the Main Square in Sopron.

In addition, the socialists made the decision against the will of the party leadership, since the MSZP officially supports the candidate of the Párbeszéd – Greens, Adrienn Jakál, just like the Democratic Coalition. The local MSZP disbanded their organization in this way, then left the party and stood behind Sovány.

Dissolution and reorganization

On April 12, Index also wrote about the extremely strange situation. The former local MSZP politicians justified their decision by saying that “both the way and the content of the decision made by the party’s national presidency regarding the candidacy of Jakál Adrienn as a mayoral candidate are unacceptable to us, both humanly and politically.”

According to their opinion, under the pressure of Gergely Karácsony – and against the wishes of the local organization of the MSZP – Ágnes Kunhalmi, Imre Komjáthi, István Hiller and Zsolt Molnár decided to run Jakál Adrienne as a candidate for mayor of Sopron.

“With this, the national presidency of the MSZP practically sacrifices its 35-year-old organization in Sopron, all its members, an always cohesive left-wing community, in order to solve the internal personal problems of Párbeszéd, the problems of the weak-handed Gergely Karácsony, cornered in his own party. We consider it an unfair and illegal decision that the national leaders of the MSZP disregarded the right to nominate us in the constitution, which is the basis of a democratic decision,” they wrote in the statement about their dissolution.

“During these consultations, the MSZP presidency was informed that the local organization in Sopron does not have its own candidate, so we saw no obstacle to locally, in compliance with the federal agreement, support municipal representative Jakál Adrienn, member of the Párbeszéd – Zöldek presidency, who In the 2021 primary election, he already established himself here as a joint candidate of Párbeszéd and MSZP – with the acceptance of the local organization,” they wrote to Index. They added: the reorganization of the party’s organization in Sopron will take place shortly.

Weird comments

After that, the comments sent to our editorial office by one of our readers from Sopron can be said to be at least interesting on the issue of political affiliation. As our source noted: “Swany Endre started spreading his political wings at a time when several incidents took place in the city, and the Outlaw Army organized its movements around this. Based on the comments, it’s a bit strange that now left-wing, liberal parties have supported him.”

The aforementioned comments were made during the April 2019 Facebook post of the local portal, Cyberpress.hu, about the profile that Endre Sovány is currently using. The article was about an awareness march that was organized by local civilians after several disturbing incidents occurred in the city in early 2019. The Outlaw Army immediately joined the action, and based on this, several people believed that they wanted to send a message to the local gypsies with the parade, and this was also indicated by the posts under the posts. (The event was otherwise peaceful, no atrocities occurred during the parade.)

Among them, Endre Sovány’s comments appeared, which were still available after four years, at the time of writing this article. Our editorial staff also recorded a screenshot of the comments.

We also contacted the person concerned with the rather interesting posts. At first, Endre Sővaný did not know what the posts were for Index, but after we read them to him, he did, and he even admitted that he had written them. At the same time, he stated that these were not racist comments, since in his opinion they were not about Gypsies at all.

“I reject all forms of racism, but also pedophiles and rapists. I referred to these in my comments, which I still undertake today. At the same time, I would suggest that they look at my other comments, even on this topic, in which I condemned the Outlaw Army,” said Svány to Index, who

“I don’t look at skin color, identity, or political affiliation, only the person, it doesn’t matter what nationality they are,” the mayoral candidate told our newspaper, who did not want to comment on the political situation around him.

Momentum stands by him

Our newspaper also contacted the organizations that support Sovány, including the former local MSZP members and the local Momentum, to see if they knew about the comments, and if they would continue to support the candidate in the municipal elections on June 9. Ferenc Németh, the local president of Momentum, responded to Index’s inquiry.

“This was part of an older debate, with a former dialogue politician, where Endre really managed to formulate what he had to say, not in the best way. For Momentum, exclusion of any kind is completely unacceptable. We were the ones who immediately organized a demonstration against the neo-Nazi congress organized in Sopron. At the same time, we also believe that people are capable of change,” wrote Németh, who underlined: Endré Sovány is not judged on the basis of a bad comment, but because they know his work. He added:

we still believe that Endre Sovány is the most credible candidate.

“Endre organized an aid group years ago, which became one of the city’s best-known civic initiatives: it helps the elderly, people in need, strictly including Roma families. With collection, or with work done, such as making a property livable or organizing shopping for the elderly during Covid. Since I personally worked with him in such movements, I know him better than having to pass judgment on him based on a comment war from 5 years ago. He spoke about the comments himself, he brought up the topic, and although I still do not think his language was appropriate, he was able to give reassuring answers to the questions raised by the others,” said the current president.

(Cover photo: Sopron. Photo: REDACO / Universal Images Group / Getty Images)

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