Far-Right Forced to Abandon ‘Street Forum’ in Hungarian Village After Local Roma Protest
17 March 2026
On the morning of Friday 13th March 2026, the small village of Kálló, in Nógrád County in the north of Hungary, was the scene of a non-violent altercation between representatives of far-right party Mi Hazánk Mozgalom (Our Homeland Movement), along with their anti-Roma Bűnvadászok (Crime Hunters) vigilante group, and a group of some 50 local Romani inhabitants. Mi Hazánk is a far-right party that has in recent years built its political platform largely off the back of anti-Roma rhetoric which it labels as being against “Gypsy crime”. Meanwhile the Crime Hunters (Bűnvadászok) are a far-right street group, funded by Mi Hazánk, that carry out vigilante actions against alleged criminals: usually Romani people in vulnerable housing situations who are accused of squatting.
Dávid Dócs, the vice-chairman of Mi Hazánk and candidate for the 2nd constituency of Nógrád County in the upcoming elections, held an attempted ‘street forum’ on 13th March as part of his campaign trail. He had posted the event online in the previous days and received online backlash and video message warnings from individuals in Kálló telling him not to bring his brand of anti-Roma politics to the village. In one of these videos, a man held up a sheathed samurai sword in an apparent warning.
On arrival, a crowd of Romani residents gathered to make it clear that Mi Hazánk and the Crime Hunters were not welcome in Kálló. There is no evidence that anyone was armed. There are no videos of physical assault and no records of anyone being treated for injuries in hospital. Instead, the crowd of local residents argued with the far-right party’s representatives and told them peacefully, but in no uncertain terms, to leave the village. The response from Mi Hazánk and its supportive news media has been to brand the incident as a physical attack on political representatives by armed criminals, despite no physical assault taking place.
The violent attack that never happened
Mi Hazánk leader, László Toroczkai, described Roma who protested as “criminal hordes” that attacked “honest Hungarians”. He said that the Romani residents “armed with samurai swords, attacked activists of the Mi Hazánk Mozgalom in the settlement of Kálló, located on the border of Nógrád and Pest County. It was clear that these hordes had arrived in an organised manner to attack our supporters…”
Far-right news outlet Magyar Jelen’s headline was that “Gypsies Rioted En Masse at the Mi Hazánk Street Forum in Kálló”. László Toroczkai himself put out a quickly edited together video showing Roma arguing at the scene and claiming that his ‘Crime Hunters’ were brutally attacked by armed criminals. Later the same day, as a guest on the Jelen podcast, he described the village as evidence of so-called “no-go zones” in Hungary (a far-right trope that certain areas with greater non-white populations are unsafe for white people to enter).
Despite the shrill cries of far-right Hungarian media of rioting Gypsies and armed criminal hordes, there has been no footage released that demonstrates violence being carried out against the so-called activists of Mi Hazánk or their vigilante support group. Available footage shows an outraged community that turned out on the streets to make it clear that far-right politics would not be tolerated in their village. A small group of women and men stood in the street to shout and argue with the far-right who were determined to occupy public space and spread hate in the small village that is home to a sizable Romani population.
Turning an embarrassment into an opportunity to incite hatred
In terms of credible threat, it is Toroczkai’s response to the protest that represents the real danger of inciting genuine violence targeted at Roma in Kálló and elsewhere. Referring to the Roma who protested as “criminal hordes” the Mi Hazánk leader promised that if his party were elected in the 12th April national elections, they would “remove such hardened criminals from society forever, so that you will never encounter them again.”
Speaking on Jelen podcast, he ominously vowed to “go back to Kálló to put things in order” and in a call on his own video, that seems designed to incite others to march on the small village, Toroczkai ended with this:
“…we will go there before the elections, and after the elections, hopefully the state will remove such criminals from society if the Mi Hazánk Movement can finally control Hungary. But we will still be there, if these criminals call us, we will go to Kálló. I promise this. They will meet me, they will meet the Crime Hunters, they will meet all of us. I promise this. Thousands of us will go there.”
