Election 2018 – Cabinet chief: Fidesz preparing to form new government

The ruling alliance of Fidesz and the Christian Democrats is preparing to put together a new government which will govern along the lines set by the Hungarian people on April 8, cabinet chief Antal Rogán told news portal Origo in an interview on Friday.

“Winning a parliamentary election with a two-thirds majority three times in a row is a historic achievement,” Rogán said. “This latest election gives the government a very strong mandate.”

Last Sunday, a “convincing majority” of the Hungarian people determined the most important questions the government should deal with, Rogán said, adding that these were the issues of stopping migration and protecting Hungary’s national sovereignty.

On the subject of the soon-to-be formed new Fidesz government, Rogán said: “Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the political community of Fidesz and the Christian Democrats are counting on everyone’s contribution but not in the same roles and positions [they have held until now]”. “It’s an old custom in Fidesz that we are given responsibilities instead of positions.”

The cabinet office chief said more would be revealed about the expected structure of the new government by early May.

Asked if Hungary would be able to thwart the European Union’s plans to distribute migrants across the bloc at the June EU summit, Rogán said there would be “huge pressure” on the government to approve the EU’s new legislation on migration.

He called the EU’s new refugee policy “unacceptable”, saying that it was “even worse than the previous one”. He said the essence of Brussels’s refugee policy was to constantly distribute migrants among member states under a permanent mechanism. “We don’t want any part in this,” Rogán said.

He said that on April 8, the Hungarian people had authorised the government to use every means in its power to protect Hungary’s sovereignty.

He said a constitutional amendment proposal seeking to ban the settlement of “foreign populations” in Hungary that was first submitted to parliament in 2016 but failed to pass after Jobbik rejected it, would be put back on parliament’s agenda.

Rogán also said Fidesz would have to “dust off” the “Stop Soros” bill and expand it so that it is brought in line with the “new circumstances”.

He said Hungary had already come under attack on Thursday when the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) debated a draft report criticising the state of the rule of law in Hungary which Rogán said was “full of lies and factual errors”.