Secret neo-Nazi event near Budapest raided by police and tax authority

A neo-Nazi party was held in a warehouse in Budaörs on 21 December last year. The location was kept secret by the organisers until the very last minute. The property was rented under the cover of the Nordic Sun Cultural Foundation supposedly to shoot a film, Telex has learned. However, the conspiracy did not work out too well, as in the end, not only did neo-Nazis from abroad show up but so did dozens of police officers, as well as officials of the National Tax Authority and the local government office.
A concert with anti-Semitic bands
As reported by Telex last autumn, Nordic Sun Records Budapest (NSRB), an unregistered label organised a neo-Nazi concert for the longest night of the year, 21 December. Tickets for the concert were only available in advance, but the exact venue was not disclosed by the organisers. Those who purchased tickets were later notified by email of the secret location.
The NSRB invited two anti-Semitic bands from abroad to the concert. One was a band called Der Stürmer. They are a black metal band from Greece and represent the so-called NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal) movement. It is a subgenre of black metal that openly promotes national socialism, neo-Nazi ideas and racist, anti-Semitic views in its music. The other band chosen to perform was Sunwheel, a Polish black metal band also associated with the NSBM movement.
When the concert was being organised, it seemed that it would take place in Budapest, but in the end, the organisers decided on a venue in Budaörs, just outside the capital. The warehouse in Budaörs was rented by the Nordic Sun Cultural Foundation. The Nordic Sun Cultural Foundation is also behind Nordic Sun Records Budapest, which actually organised the concert.
The foundation, which was registered a few years ago and with a headquarter in the village of Nagybörzsöny, seemingly hasn't got anything to do with the far right, although it is closely linked to the Hungarian branch of the international Blood & Honour far-right neo-Nazi network, Blood & Honour Hungária.
Blood & Honour is a neo-Nazi music promotion network and far-right political group founded in the UK by one of the first skinheads, Ian Stuart Donaldson, a Briton, in the 1980s. The organisation is banned in several countries (Germany, Spain, Russia and Canada). The British government imposed financial sanctions on the organisation in January this year under the anti-terrorism legislation. The asset freeze was extended to all associated groups. Under the sanctions, no one in the UK is allowed to provide funding or financial services to the named organisations.
The foundation that promotes acceptance among nations
The documents relating to the foundation used to cover the Hungarian branch of the organisation, do not clarify what exactly is being promoted. Officially, the objective of the Nordic Sun Cultural Foundation is to promote acceptance and understanding between European nations and to defeat chauvinism – primarily through pop music publications. "We believe that getting to know each other's cultures helps break down walls and that more Europeans are going to realise that there is much more that unites us than divides us," reads their founding document, available from court records.
When renting the warehouse, the foundation was used as a kind of front for the organisers, who rented the property for filming. The organisers' efforts to keep the location secret until the last minute is understandable. The event was expected to attract mostly neo-Nazis from abroad, and the authorities tend to become aware of such gatherings and try to prevent them from taking place.
This is also true in countries to the west of us, and in Germany and Austria, they are trying to keep neo-Nazis under tight control. In a report on the Blood & Honour Hungária website, a member of the organisation complained that in Germany and Austria, the police 'visit certain citizens at a time close to the date of an event which is not pleasing to the authorities, or before certain anniversaries, and ban them from leaving their place of residence without giving any reason'.
Sometimes these individuals are intercepted when checking in at the airport. They often try to meet in neighbouring countries, for example in October 2023 Austrian neo-Nazis held their networking meeting in Sopron, Hungary. If they go to a country where the organisation is not banned, the authorities have only one option: to disrupt and prevent the event through different means.

The police checked everyone
A similar thing may have happened at the Budaörs event, because despite the organizers' efforts to keep the event a secret, around 9 pm on 21 December, the concert venue was raided by dozens of police officers who checked the participants' IDs. The police were accompanied by representatives of the National Tax Office and the local government office, who carried out checks and thus hindered the concert. However, pictures and videos on the Internet show that the concert was still held in the end.
According to the information we received, at the end of the inspection, which lasted several hours, the tax authorities initiated proceedings against the company that operated the bar during the concert. It is reported that they even confiscated the inventory of the drinks bar. We contacted the company operating the bar to ask for details, but they did not respond. We also contacted the police, but they did not respond either.
However, it was not only the company operating the bar that got their fingers burnt at the concert: the Nordic Sun Cultural Foundation, which rented the venue, was fined by the government office. We understand that the inspectors found fire safety deficiencies, and allegedly said that there was no clearly marked designated escape route.
Disguised as a birthday party and a martial arts gala
In recent years, Hungary has become a popular meeting point for European far-right organisations. Last October, for example, an extreme right-wing gathering was held in a cultural centre in Csömör, near Budapest, where Italian, Polish and Hungarian neo-Nazi bands performed. The organisers also played a trick at that time, with a private individual renting the venue allegedly for his birthday, indicating that there would also be friends from abroad coming to the party. In May 2023, such an event was also more or less successfully held, the neo-Nazi gathering then disguised as a martial arts gala.
The Hungarian branch of the organisation is also organising a concert for early February, with ten European performers expected, but the venue is also kept secret.
Organisation these parties is complicated, as the organisers have to try to evade the authorities, but it is not bad business: according to some sources, the tickets for the party in Csömör cost 100 euros. In addition, it is important for Hungarians to host events in order to build international relationships, as this allows them to be an active part of the European far-right network, which is much stronger and more influential than the Hungarian one.
For the host state, however, becoming a meeting place for the European far right is much less fun. Not only can the presence of members of such organisations instil fear in people, but it also attracts the neo-Nazis' enemy, the equally violent European far left. The activity of the latter is already as much a challenge to the Hungarian authorities as that of the neo-Nazis.
It is memorable that between 9-11 February 2023, antifascists attacked strangers in Budapest on five separate occasions – mainly based on their clothing. Four people were seriously and five slightly injured in the attacks. The three suspected perpetrators were arrested on 11 February.
One of them was Ilaria Salis, a 40-year-old Italian primary school teacher, whose trial started in Budapest last May. The process did not go through, however, because Salis was put in a top position on the EP list of an Italian far-left party and after receiving enough votes, she became a member of the European Parliament. The Hungarian government has since asked for Salis' immunity to be lifted so that she can be sent back to prison.
On the same day last February when the above attacks took place, far-right extremists also attacked left-wing counter-protesters. However, while the former incidents were classified by the police as acts of violence against members of a community, the attacks of far-right activists on anti-fascists and passers-by were classified only as acts of assault and battery.
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