In 2013, Budapest, Hungary was chosen as a location for the 14th Plenary Assembly because of concerns over the rise of anti-Semitism in that country. Péter Feldmájer, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, stated this was "a symbol of solidarity with our Jewish community, which has been faced with growing anti-Semitism in recent years". In his speech at the opening dinner, in the presence of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder lambasted a series of recent anti-Semitic and racist incidents in Hungary. He particularly mentioned Zsolt Bayer, who had penned a newspaper column referring to Roma as "cowardly, repulsive, noxious animals" that are "unfit to live among people" and "shouldn't be allowed to exist." Lauder said "such words are reminiscent of the darkest era in European history" and concluded that "Hungary's international reputation has suffered in recent years" not because it was being "smeared by the foreign press" but rather due to extremists in the Jobbik party. "Jobbik is dragging the good name of Hungary through the mud," Lauder said. On the eve of the WJC assembly in Budapest, about 700 Jobbik supporters held a demonstration in downtown Budapest where they railed against "Zionists who had subjugated the indigenous people of Hungary."