Power of the public? Hungarian government will not vote on controversial transparency law for now

The transparency law will not be included on the legislative committee’s agenda and MPs will not hold a vote on it before the summer, Máté Kocsis, the Fidesz parliamentary group leader, told news portal Index on Wednesday.

He said Fidesz was united behind making use of a law to protect sovereignty, but a debate was underway about what form the relevant legislation should take. A debate on the “controversial transparency law” will be postponed until the autumn, and professional organisations will be consulted on its contents in the meantime, he added.

Besides proposals from Fidesz MPs, the Hungarian Banking Association, the Hungarian Advertising Association, the presidential Sandor Palace, the Hungarian Bar Association and the Hungarian Newspaper Publishers Association have stated their views too, he added.

Fidesz believes, at the same time, that professional organisations such as organisations financed from abroad, “pseudo-civil groups” and media actors that would fall under the scope of the law would not have a say in the drafting of the legislation, he said.

They had generally sent “ad hominem criticisms” rather than constructive suggestions, he said, and these “cannot be taken into account in the legislative process”. Kocsis referred to the “Ukrainian espionage case”, saying it was “a good example of why sovereignty must be protected”.