(JTA) -- Holocaust denial and public incitement of racial hatred would be illegal under constitutional changes proposed by Hungary’s Socialist minority administration. The proposed legislation is being drafted for publication within weeks. The government, preoccupied with the recession that has hit Eastern Europe hard and made Hungary the host of some of the most active neo-Nazis in Europe, has planned the legal reform in response to public outrage at recent provocations. Education Minister István Hiller has called for legislation to make Holocaust denial a punishable offense. Interior Minister Tibor Draskovics has proposed constitutional amendments to outlaw racist agitation promoting hatred against any ethnic or religious minority. The amendments would bypass the Constitutional Court that has blocked several previous legislative attempts. The amendments come on the
heels of a demonstration provocatively staged to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day by several neo-Nazi organizations in the Castle district of Buda, the last foothold of the German-Hungarian defenders of this city against the Soviet invasion at the close of World War II.
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