Neo-Nazis plan rally with German peers in Budapest

The Hungarian Nationalist Socialist Front (NS) will hold a rally in Budapest on March 6 with fellow German a neo-Nazis, Nepszabadsag daily said on Wednesday.
The neo-Nazi group originally planned to hold their event to commemorate a WWII battle together with the local group called the "Hungarists" - followers of the Hungarian collaborators with German Nazi rule - on February 14 at Heroes' Square.
But police issued a stern warning that they would not be allowed to gather either in Heroes' Square or at any other frequented site.
The Hungarists will instead commemorate the "Day of Honour", a WWII battle in defence of Budapest where German and Hungarian soldiers broke out of the besieged Buda Castle, in a small group up in the Buda Hills.
The Nationalist Socialist Front, however, insists on holding their event in a public space. The group has since set up a party called National Revolutionary Party, a source told Nepszabadsag. The idea is to hold the rally as a political campaign and circumvent a police ban.
NS has postponed the date to March 6 at the request of their German peers, unable to attend the February commemoration in Budapest because of a similar commemoration in Dresden coinciding with it.
politics.hu

Study finds major discrimination against Turkish job applicants (Germany)

Researchers at the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) sent two applications responding to each of 528 advertisements for student internships, one application with a German-sounding name and the other with a Turkish-sounding one. Both applicants were German citizens with native German language skills.

The applications bearing the German names were 14 percent more likely receive a phone call response from the employer, and 24 percent more likely in the case of smaller firms.

“We interpret this finding as evidence for statistical discrimination,” he authors wrote.
However, the discrimination disappeared when the applications contained positive letters of reference about the candidate’s personality.
“The study shows that employers still have some things to learn when it comes to in-house human resources,” said an IZA spokesman. “Workers with immigrant backgrounds’ potential is not being fully realised.”
For the German candidates, the researchers used the names “Dennis Langer” and “Tobias Hartmann,” which were among the 30 most common first names and surnames in Germany for the years 1986 to 1988.

For the Turkish candidates, they used “Fatih Yildiz” and “Serkan Sezer” – both common for male descendants of Turkish immigrants in Germany.
Though the researchers were concerned by the results, they said the discrimination was mild compared with discrimination studies on ethnic minorities in other countries, such as Albanians in Greece, Arabs in Sweden or African Americans in the United States.
Th Local German Edition

BULGARIA SLAMMED BY COUNCIL OF EUROPE OVER MINORITY, CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, has criticized Bulgaria for failing to do enough to uphold minority and children’s rights. “More efforts are needed to better protect minorities and children and to ensure that their needs are embedded in the decision making process,” said Hammarberg, who published Tuesday a report on his visit to Bulgaria carried out in November 2009. “Protection of minorities against discrimination, racism and intolerance should be enhanced. Adequate measures should be taken to prevent and punish cases of police misconduct,“ the CE Commissioner says while also urging the Bulgarian authorities to provide reparation and find speedily a solution for pending pension claims to victims of the ‘Revival Process’, the assimilation campaign undertaken by the Bulgarian communist regime against the ethnic Turkish minority. The CE Commissioner goes as far as suggesting a Constitutional amendment “in order to better safeguard minorities’ freedom of association and assembly and to fully align practice with the Council of Europe standards.” “Evicted Roma should be offered decent alternative solutions. More generally, access to adequate housing, education and social rights remain problematic and all too often they are victims of racially motivated discrimination and violence. The authorities should urgently reverse this situation,” Hammarberg says with respect to the Roma community. The Council of Europe Commissioner recommends that Bulgaria undertake a deinstitutionalization program with respect to children with intellectual disabilities.
novinite.com

BNP to contest borough mayoral elections

Politicians today expressed their anger after it emerged that the British National Party is to field candidates for the May mayoral elections in three London boroughs.

Candidates representing the far-Right party will campaign in the boroughs of Lewisham, Newham and Hackney, sparking outrage from anti-fascist organisations and local politicians.

The BNP has not released details of who will stand but Bob Bailey, the party's London organiser, said he is convinced people will vote for the party.

He said: “We need to raise money before we can announce the full details. But it is time the BNP stood in these elections. People in these boroughs have asked us to field candidates because they are so unhappy with the other political parties.”
A spokesman for Unite Against Fascism said: “Hackney, Lewisham and Newham are proud, multi-cultural and multi-racial London boroughs. They are a living testament to everything the BNP would like to destroy.”

This is London