DK criticises government plans to change rules of appointing judges

Recent government plans under which “it would be easier for government officials to become judges” are another step in “dismantling democracy” in Hungary, the spokesman of the leftist Democratic Coalition told a press conference on Monday.

Zsolt Gréczy insisted that ruling Fidesz seeks to extend political control over Hungary’s law courts, which are still “more or less independent”.

Referring to earlier government plans to set up special law courts to deal with key economic or political cases, Gréczy said that “we do not want to live in a dictatorship, nor do we want construed cases or Fidesz-appointed judges with full power over life and death”.

Gréczy noted that the national judicial office also had objections to the justice ministry’s plans, and warned that “demonstrations similar to those in Poland” could follow.

In response, Fidesz communications chief Balázs Hidvéghi said in a statement that the “attacks on Hungary’s justice system constitute another campaign against Hungary and Poland for rejecting migrants and the mandatory EU resettlement quota scheme.”

DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány talking about an independent justice system is “particularly obnoxious”, because it is he who “threatens prosecutors and judges routinely when they decide against his interests”, Hidvéghi said.

Source: MTI