Socialists submit referendum draft resolution to parliament

Budapest, May 9 (MTI) – The opposition Socialist Party on Monday submitted a draft resolution to parliament, which if passed, would ensure that the two referendums sponsored by the party are held on the same day as the government-initiated referendum on mandatory migrant quotas.

Deputy leader Zoltán Gőgös presented to the media the 125,000 signatures the party has collected so far in support of each of its two referendum initiatives. The Socialists have to collect a total of 200,000 signatures in support of each initiative in order for a referendum to be called on them.

Their referendum initiatives concern the government’s state-owned land privatisation programme and the introduction of a 2 million forint (EUR 6,300) cap on public officials’ salaries.

Gőgös said his party will hold off on submitting the signatures to the National Election Office until ruling Fidesz guarantees that it will support their resolution.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party said it will file a complaint to the Constitutional Court asking it to axe an earlier ruling by the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, which allows the EU quota referendum to go ahead. Gábor Fodor, the party’s leader, said on Monday that the government-initiated referendum could be registered as early as today and a decision made on Tuesday. Fodor said the question of the referendum had not been debated in sufficient depth and he insisted that Fidesz was using the planned popular vote as a means to pave the way for Hungary to leave the European Union.

Ruling Fidesz group leader Lajos Kósa called the Socialist proposal a “political bluff”. The initiative, he said, indicates “total incomprehension” of the law. He added that it was an “open and deliberate” incitement to a violation of laws.

The two referendums cannot be held at the same time due to relevant deadlines defined by law, while “the Socialists are in a despair to mix up the referendum questions; their pro-immigration position has obviously become uncomfortable”, Kósa said.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters