A lawmaker with Hungary's nationalist Jobbik party announced that he was resigning from parliament after a recording on which he could be heard making anti-Semitic comments was leaked.
Hungarian television broadcast the sound recording last Wednesday in which István Szávay was heard telling fellow Jobbik party members in May that he had verbally and physically insulted a woman in a pub who he said had called him a "stinking Nazi."
In a Facebook post announcing his resignation Monday, he clarified that the comments on the recording, while authentic, were a "shameful and humiliating joke," and that he had not actually hurt the woman.
In Monday's post, Szávay said that by resigning his seat he was taking "responsibility in a proportionate manner" for everything that had been "said in a secretly recorded private conversation six months ago."
Szavay also said that he was resigning to avoid hindering Jobbik's efforts to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party.
Several other Jobbik lawmakers and politicians have made statements considered anti-Semitic since the party entered parliament in 2010, but in recent years, Jobbik has made efforts to tone down its far-right rhetoric to expand its voter base.
