February 2020 will be a busy month for some of the extreme elements of Europe’s radical right. Multiple events are expected: marches, concerts, an election in Slovakia where a radical right party is second in the polls, in addition to the continent’s radical right fringes remembering the 75th anniversary of the last days of World War II in their own way.
On February 11, 1945, tens of thousands of Nazi German and collaborating Hungarian troops, along with a number of civilians, tried to break through the Soviet Red Army siege of Budapest. While several thousand civilians and several hundred soldiers managed to reach the Nazi German front lines away from the besieged city, the majority of attempted escapees, civilian and military, were killed or captured by the Red Army. Budapest fell to the Red Army two days later.
For Hungary’s radical right, the attempted breakout by Nazi and pro-Nazi forces has been a day to commemorate since the 1990s. And 2020 will be no different, as the radical right Légió Hungária is hosting a commemorative event and concert, “Festung Budapest” (Fortress Budapest), or the “Day of Honour” on February 8.
