Speech of Hungarian mayor at elementary school attracts attention abroad

It is not often that the ceremony of a Hungarian elementary school marking the start of the school year makes international headlines, but that is precisely what happened this week. Earlier this week, the Fidesz-member mayor of the small town of Oroszlány gave a controversial speech which attracted attention even beyond Hungary's borders.

Several media outlets in the Muslim-majority country of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported that Károly Takács welcomed the new first-graders at the ceremony of the Hunyadi Mátyás Elementary School with the words:

"How nice that there is no Mohammed among them."

The news site Klix.ba pointed out that Takács is a member of the Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which is well known for its strong anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The Bosnian news outlet N1 Info highlighted the irony that on the same day he delivered the speech at the school, the mayor congratulated an Indonesian woman living in Oroszlány on passing her Hungarian citizenship exam. N1 Info also mentioned that Takács enjoys strong local support in Oroszlány, with Fidesz-KDNP holding a majority of the six seats in the city council.

News of the Oroszlány ceremony also reached neighbouring Croatia: Index.hr wrote that it is customary in Hungary for local politicians to make a speech at ceremonies marking the start of the school year, but that this year's speech in Oroszlány was received very negatively by some members of the public. They also reported that the mayor of neighboring Tatabánya, Márton Boros, and the principal of the Oroszlány elementary school, Mónika Fehérvári have both distanced themselves from Takács' statement, who later posted on Facebook that he regretted nothing.

The Croatian news site Dnevno also added that Tamás Menczer, Fidesz's communications director sided with the mayor on the subject and said on his social media page that mass migration has brought terror and crime to Europe. He emphasized that in contrast to that, Hungary had "protected itself" by building a fence along its southern border. He added that he believes immigration is just as serious a problem today as it was ten years ago, but that there are "no Mohammeds" in Hungary because of the Fidesz government's immigration policy. The Croatian news portal Dnevnik also reported on the statement of Károly Takács.

But it was not only in the Balkans that the speech made headlines. In the Czech Republic, Novinky.cz reported on it, mentioning that the mayor claimed that Mohamed is already the most common name in Germany. "I am very happy that there are no such names among our first-graders. We must keep it this way" Takács said after greeting each of the school's new first-year students by name.