Between 6 February and 12 February 2025, there will be an increased presence of police personnel in Budapest, Hungary, a press release by the Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK) revealed.
The release itself does not go into detail about the reasons behind the decision. However, those dates do engulf the two-year anniversary of the series of Antifa attacks in Budapest, which took place on 10 February 2023; and Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Bence Rétvári has talked about taking action to prevent another incident like that happening in the past.
The attack itself happened on an anniversary day, that of the siege of the Buda castle by the Soviet forces in 1945, during World War II. The far-left violent organization Antifa, whose members came to Budapest from other European countries for the event, assaulted anyone they perceived as ‘far-right fascists’ based on their proximity to the commemoration events and their appearance alone.
During the six designated days, the special police force tasked with securing major events (the ‘Készenléti Rendőrség’ meaning ‘stand-by police’) will also be deployed in the capital city of Budapest.
The 2023 Antifa attack led to one of the biggest scandals in Hungarian politics in recent years.
One of the perpetrators, Ilaria Salis from Milan, Italy, was apprehended by local police before she could flee the country like her accomplices. The conditions of her custody made international headlines, with many of the liberal mainstream media in the West actually siding with the violent attacker who claimed they were ‘inhumane’. In response, the progressive left-wing Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (AVS) party nominated her to the European Parliament in the 2024 EP elections. Since AVS ended up winning six seats in the election, Salis was elected a Member of the European Parliament, which granted her political immunity, thus she was released before her trial.
The Hungarian government asked the European Parliament to vote to revoke her immunity. However, that vote, originally scheduled for January 2025, has been delayed and has yet to come to a conclusion.
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