We, the undersigned parties note with deep concern that a state court is threatening to imprison the entire leadership of the Hungarian Communist Workers' Party (HCWP) for having committed "libel in a public place".
Our conviction is that putting political leaders on trial and banning their parties is the work of dictatorships, not democracies. The action of the Hungarian authorities violates all democratic norms.
We strongly condemn the political persecution directed by the judicial authorities against the HCWP, as a part of the anticommunist witch-hunt against communists in Europe and against all those who fight against mass privatisation of hospitals, schools, cutting down of social expenditures and other forms of neoliberal policy.
We consider this clear manoeuvre of the Hungarian authorities as a vengeful assault against the Hungarian Communists, and call on for international solidarity in defence of the legal and political rights of the HWCP.
We demand immediate stop of the judicial process against the leaders of the Hungarian communists.
We call upon Prime Minister Gyurcsany and the government of Hungary to step back from the abyss and keep its promises of political freedom, by cancelling all charges against the leadership of the HCWP.
The Parties
Progressive Tribune Bahrein
Communist Party of Belarus
Communist Party of Brazil [PCdoB]
Workers’ Party of Belgium
Communist Party of Britain
Communist Party of Bolivia
Workers Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina
New Communist Party of Britain
Communist Party of Canada
Communist Party of Cuba
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Czech Republic
AKEL, Cyprus
Communist Party of Finland
French Communist Party
German Communist Party
Communist Party of Greece
Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party
Communist Party of India [Marxist]
Tudeh Party, Iran
Iraqi Communist Party
Communist Party of Ireland
Communist Party of Israel
Party of the Italian Communists, PdCI
Jordanian Communist Party
Socialist Party of Latvia
Socialist Party of Lithuania
Lebanese Communist Party
Communist Party of Luxembourg
Party of the Communists, Mexico
New Communist Party of the Netherlands
Communist Party of Norway
Communist Party of Sri Lanka
Peruan Communist Party
Communist Party of Poland
Portuguese Communist Party
PKP-1930, the Philippine Communist Party
Socialist Alliance Party, Romania
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Serbia
Communist Party of Slovakia
Party of the Communists of Cataluna, Spain
Communist Party of Peoples of Spain
Sudanese Communist Party
South African Communist Party
Communist Party of Sweden
Syrian Communist Party
Communist Party of Turkey
Party of Labour, Turkey [EMEP]
