Extremists plan Roma concentration camps

Jobbik came third in April general elections with almost 17 per cent of the vote and is gearing up for local elections on October 3.

It trumpeted its "solution" to "Gypsy crime" at a press conference addressed by party vice-chairman Csanad Szegedi MEP.

"We would force these families out of their dwellings and then we would transport these families to public order protection camps," he told reporters.

"At these camps, there would be a chance to return to civilised society," Mr Szegedi said.

But he declared that those who did not "abandon crime" and ensure their children attend school "can spend the rest of their lives in these camps."

Jobbik leader Gabor Vona boasted that his party was the only one brave enough to "face realities and have the guts to say what 90 per cent of the Hungarian population say during their family lunch on Sundays."

The ruling right-wing Fidesz party echoed the extremists' sentiments on Thursday pledging "strict laws and a strong police force" as the answer to "Gypsy crime."

Fidesz has been accused of fuelling xenophobia and ultra-nationalism in its campaign to win over Jobbik voters.

It granted Hungarian citizenship to Hungarian minorities living in neighbouring countries - to the anger of Slovakia and Romania.

And it introduced a national remembrance day to mourn the Trianon treaty which resulted in the break-up of imperial Hungary in the 1920s.

Istvan Nyako, spokesman for the opposition Hungarian Socialist Party, said the call for Roma people to be cut off from the rest of the population and locked up was "reminiscent of the national socialist agenda for concentration camps 65 years ago."

Liberal-Green opposition party Politics Can Be Different (LMP), the fourth-largest party in the Hungarian parliament, said Fidesz's response indicated that the ruling party was only engaged with the issue "in a superficial way."

LMP activist Timea Szabo "deeply condemned" Jobbik's concentration camp proposal and insisted that the underlying problem was "deep poverty."

"Solutions must go beyond merely addressing its symptoms," she said.