Hungary’s opposition parties on Thursday called on Justice Minister Judit Varga to step down in the wake of bribery allegations against a former senior ministry official.
Pál Völner resigned as state secretary on Tuesday after the chief prosecutor’s office asked parliament to lift his immunity so he can defend himself against charges of receiving bribes on a regular basis. At an online press conference held in front of the justice ministry, the opposition Momentum, Párbeszéd, Jobbik, LMP, Democratic Coalition (DK) and Socialist parties, along with the Everyone’s Hungary Movement (MMM), called on Völner to also step down as a lawmaker.
Noting that Thursday marked International Anti-Corruption Day, Momentum board member Miklós Hajnal said “systemic corruption” in Hungary was “also visible from the inside, not just at the tip of the iceberg”.
“They are practically running a criminal organisation within the ministry, and the state is practically being controlled by the Fidesz mafia,” he insisted. Hajnal said the opposition would “cleanse” every ministry if it won next year’s general election and aimed to ensure that Hungary was “not the European champion of corruption”.
Párbeszéd’s Bence Tordai said two other MPs of ruling Fidesz, György Simonka and István Boldog,
faced “similar allegations to Völner”, but “their parliamentary seats are the key to maintaining Fidesz’s two-thirds majority”.
György Szilágyi of Jobbik said “the most shocking thing” was that Hungary “has become the most corrupt country in the European Union”.
LMP group leader László Lóránt Keresztes noted that
Völner is suspected of having received “millions of forints” in bribes from the president of the branch of bailiffs over a sustained period of time.
“Until the threads of corruption are investigated, the repossessions need to be suspended,” he said. Keresztes added that because Völner had also been in charge of approving surveillance requests, “we must assume that he also handled those in a corrupt manner.”
Socialist lawmaker Ildikó Borbély Bangó called for details of the case surrounding Völner to be declassified. She wanted to know whether Völner had
“provided services to certain individuals in other areas” and if the bribes in question had “also ended up in other places”.
DK’s László Varju said Volner’s asset declaration was not a reliable source of information in the investigation against him, arguing that he and his family “hid their illegally-acquired wealth in the business empire they own”.
MMM board member Katalin Lukácsi, who spoke on behalf of Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition alliance’s prime ministerial candidate, speculated that the justice minister and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had been aware of Völner’s actions. “In a happy country the justice ministry is the headquarters of honour, but in Hungary it’s just another subcontractor of the
crime syndicate led by Viktor Orbán,”
she said.
In response, the ruling Fidesz party said that while corruption among the ranks of the left wing had happened with impunity, Völner was prepared to clear his name in court. “The left wing should examine itself: [Momentum’s]
Katalin Cseh is up to the eyes in a corruption scandal, a mafia is operating at the Metropolitan Council,
and the cronies of [ex-premiers Ferenc] Gyurcsány and [Gordon] Bajnai are acquiring real properties in Budapest for bribes,” Fidesz said in a statement. While the left wing has shown no intention of investigating its cases, Völner is prepared to clear his name, and pro-government MPs will vote to lift his immunity to enable him to do so, Fidesz said.
Read alsoSenior justice ministry official resigns over bribery charges
Source: MTI
If you would like to support the work of the Daily News Hungary staff and independent journalism,
please make a donation here
please make a donation here
Hot news
Top Hungary news: snow covered Hungary, regime change in Budapest parking, forint free fall – 22 November, 2024
THE ranking: Győr’s Széchenyi István University among the top science universities
Hungarian minister proud that both German and Chinese battery plants are built in Hungary
Here are the top Hungarian cities for expats seeking a new home
Drugs situation in Budapest serious, leading politician says
“Hungarian Iron Dome” deployed near the Ukrainian border, expert says Putin will attack Hungary
4 Comments
The reason Fidesz controls most of the Hungarian government is clear. Hungarians DO NOT want more of the awful policies of the communist and left leaning Brussels Gyorgy Soro’s Lap Dogs who want to turn Hungary into a 3rd world country overrun with 3rd world migrants and the LGBTQ moral degenerate policies. Here is your clue. You and your policies are not welcome here. How much clearer do we need to make it?
Hungarians voted a FIDESZ majority government because this party’s philosophy agrees with the wishes of the population. Furthermore, when issues, previously not discussed, the government consults the population. This balances the 4 year dictatorship of other EU countries and allows participation of the population. Hungarians made the right choice, well done.
Agree with Juhász and MVT. Well put -:)
Ingraham: Biden and the globalists ‘hijacking democracy’ in the name of democracy