Exploiting anti-Gypsy fears and enduring unemployment in villages hit hard by the economic crisis, Jobbik entered parliament for the first time in 2010 with nearly 17 percent of the vote. Recent polls, however, show its support has slipped to 13 percent among likely voters.
So after months of focusing its political energy in the legislature, Jobbik has renewed its campaign against Gypsies, also know as Roma, with rallies in villages across the country.
Jobbik lawmakers and some 600 supporters, including 50 in camouflage gear and military boots, demonstrated Saturday evening against "Gypsy terror," in Hejoszalonta, a small village 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Budapest, the capital.
The protest was sparked by the March 22 murder of a local woman. Two of her Roma tenants and a third suspect have been apprehended by police.
Hungary's Roma make up around 6-to-8 percent of the country's population of 10 million and are among its poorest and least-educated residents, facing discrimination at all levels, from education to employment to health care.
Jobbik's rise was aided by the Hungarian Guard, a uniformed group with several thousand members that held several marches in rural towns to "protect" the non-Roma and intimidate Romas. The Guard was disbanded by the courts in 2009 and Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed before the 2010 April election to enforce the ban, famously saying he would deal with them with "two slaps in the face."
While the Hungarian Guard's Internet page has been inactive for nearly a year, groups with similar names—and many of the same members—have taken their place: the New Hungarian Guard, the Hungarian National Guard, the Guard Motorcyclists and the National Garrison, among others.
Amnesty International and other rights groups have called on police to protect Hungary's Roma minority and to prevent the self-appointed vigilantes from carrying out similar marches. But Jobbik held a rally in another eastern village last month and uniformed extremist groups patrolled its streets for weeks.
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