Opposition party wants Hungarian minister to resign

Opposition party LMP is calling on Energy Minister Csaba Lantos to resign as according to them a government decree that came into effect on Friday favours polluting and environmentally destructive companies.

László Lóránt Keresztes, a member of LMP and the chairman of parliament’s sustainable development committee, said on Sunday that citing the wartime emergency, the government put into effect a decree that allows “polluting and environmentally destructive companies to avoid fines, and which makes it impossible to close plants in the event of serious environmental pollution”.

Keresztes said LMP has already announced that they will turn to the Constitutional Court of Hungary because of the “destruction” of the environmental protection institutional system.

Keresztes said the situation would not be solved even if, keeping to its promises, the government revokes the decree as “the licensing procedure for dangerous industrial plants and battery factories is chaotic”.

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He noted that “in several cases, the government allows waiving the strictest environmental protection licensing procedures” and the scandals surrounding the licensing procedures of polluting plants are still ongoing.

Keresztes said it must be made clear that “it is a complete surrender of sovereignty when the government sacrifices and puts up for sale Hungary’s natural treasures for the benefit of foreign manufacturers and investors”.