EUROPE: Prominent Hungarian Wants “Bestial” Gypsies Killed.

Yesterday we noted the distressing anti-immigrant policies in Greece that have led to violent treatment of foreigners. We’ve also noted how another stressed EU member – Hungary – has gone even further down the road of xenophobic extremism (see here, here, and here).

But even by Hungarian standards things are getting ugly. . . . When thinly veiled calls for mass murder are uttered by prominent political and cultural figures tied to a ruling party, and a country fails to rise up in horror and drive these wicked people to the fringes of political life, that country has gone hideously off the track. Hungarian politicians, academics, journalists, religious leaders and artists and writers need to make it plain to the world that Mr. Bayer does not speak for them.

Europe’s leaders also need to take a look at the poisonous weeds sprouting up in their garden. The hatreds that the European Union was intended to quell are returning. It is not clear that beyond muddling through and hoping vaguely for the best Europe has any idea what to do.

European political leadership is up to its usual standards.