Councillors seek to strip writer of honour

Councillors in Budapest's municipal assembly have voted in favour of stripping an ageing writer of his honorary citizenship.

Akoz Kertesz, a novelist, has been published in several languages.

The furore is over an acidic diatribe which Kertesz published in an overseas Hungarian paper, the U.S. Amerikai Nepszava.

Hungarians are genetically subservient, the author had written.

They do not feel the slightest remorse for the gravest of historical crimes, they shift their responsibility to others and always put the blame on others They are unable or unwilling to learn they envy and, if possible, kill those who succeed in life through work, learning and innovation.

Kertesz went on to claim that the Hungarians were the last nation not to have owned up to complicity in the Holocaust. Following outrage in the press, and at the municipal level, Kertesz withdrew his remark about genetic tendencies.

However, this has not been enough to placate his enemies, who claim that he is unworthy of holding the esteemed award the Kossuth Prize, which he won in 2008.