German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she will visit the Great Synagogue in Budapest, and discuss with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban about the rising anti-Semitism in Europe, during her visit to Hungary on Monday.

Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, announced that during Merkel’s visit to Budapest she is to discuss with Orban general issues regarding the European Union (EU), but also invest time to examine anti-Semitic incidents and the growing racism in Europe in recent months, and will likewise visit the central synagogue in Budapest.

“The risk of xenophobia must be recognized wherever it is in Europe, and we must reject it. It has to be that way in Germany, like any other country in the European Union” said Seibert.

He also addressed the Hungarian far-right Jobbik party, whose leaders tend to speak against the Jews and asked to make a list of Jews living in Hungary “because they pose a risk to the state,” they said.

Jobbik leaders also organized a number of demonstrations and events aimed at Jews living in Hungary.

“The fact that a party that gained almost 20 percent in the last election has elements of xenophobia should worry us,” he added.

Last Monday, during a memorial ceremony for the International Holocaust Day dedicated to Jewish soldiers who fell during World War I in protecting the borders of Hungary, Orban said that “many people in Hungary acted shamefully during World War II. Hungary has a moral debt to the Jews that it helped send to death camps thirty years after the First World War. “

Orban gave a speech in spite of opposition from members of his party and Jobbik party members, who claimed that the prime minister must not apologize for theh acts of Hungary during the Holocaust.