István Győrkös
| István Győrkös | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 November 1940 |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Years active | 1989–2016 |
| Organization | Hungarian National Front |
| Known for | Neo-Nazi and Hungarist activist |
István Győrkös (born 20 November 1940) is a Hungarian far-right political figure, founder and leader of the Hungarist and neo-Nazi paramilitary movement Hungarian National Front (MNA) since 1989. He had been a leading and prominent figue in Hungarian extremist and neo-Nazi politics in the 1990s. In 1995, he proclaimed himself the sole leader of the Hungarist movement under the title Vezető ("Leader"), a term similar to Duce (Italian) for Benito Mussolini, Führer (German) for Adolf Hitler and Nemzetvezető (Hungarian) for Ferenc Szálasi.
He reportedly shot a police officer to death during a perquisition at his property in Bőny, Győr-Moson-Sopron County on 26 October 2016.
Despite his rapid rise by the early 1990s to become the "leader of the neo-Nazis in Hungary", as a 1995 academic work by Sabrina P. Ramet referred to Győrkös, not much was publicly known about him before the transition to democracy in 1989. According to himself, he participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Following the uprising was crushed by the Soviet invasion, Győrkös was arrested and imprisoned by the new pro-Soviet regime. In the jail, his political views were influenced by former Arrow Cross Party-member cellmates. Thereafter, Győrkös identified himself as National Socialist and Hungarist (the fascist ideology of the war-time Arrow Cross Party). Another sources claimed Győrkös lived in emigration sometimes after release from prison. According to Paul Hockenos, Győrkös was an unemployed electrical engineer during the early 1990s.
Based in Győr, he founded the Hungarian National Socialist Action Group in 1989 (according to other sources, in January 1991), a fascist and neo-Nazi civil organization, which functioned under the cover of the Peregrine Falcon Hiker Association. The movement intended to transform itself into a mass-based political party based on the heritage of the war-time Arrow Cross Party. After the Second World War and the execution of party leader Ferenc Szálasi, the Hungarist Movement went to emigration led by Árpád Henney, who served as Minister besides the Leader of the Nation (Szálasi's title) in the "Government of National Unity". Henney died in 1980, he was succeeded by Imre Tarjányi-Tatár, who had good relationship with Győrkös. Tarjányi-Tatár was unable to unify the Hungarist movement which suffered from constant internal strife. Győrkös' movement in Hungary under these conditions became increasingly dominant and decisive. According to historian Tibor Tóth, the elderly and ailing Tarjányi-Tatár proclaimed Győrkös as his heir as the leader of the Hungarist movement.
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