EP Elections – LMP And Jobbik Would Lobby To Protect Hungarian Farmland

Budapest, April 15 (MTI) – The small opposition LMP party has proposed that a two-day extraordinary session of parliament should be convened to discuss the protection of Hungarian farmland, Bernadett Szel, the party’s lawmaker said. The radical nationalist Jobbik said on Tuesday that no other party can guarantee that Hungary’s farmland remains in use by local communities and does not fall into the hands of oligarchs, foreigners and speculators.

LMP

Szel told a press conference on Tuesday that together with independent lawmaker Jozsef Angyan the party has initiated an extraordinary session for April 24-25 and it is collecting supporting signatures from lawmakers.

She said that LMP considers farmland the most important of Hungary’s natural resources and rural development as a priority area. The new Land Act to come into effect on May 1 will not provide sufficient guarantees to reduce the excessive importance that industrial agriculture receives against small and medium-sized farms at the moment, while in LMP’s view the latter should be strengthened. The new law contains loopholes which make it possible to create farms without any limit to size, she insisted.

Tamas Meszerics, who heads LMP’s list of candidates in the European elections, told the same press conference that this issue can best be dealt with in the framework of the European Union in the long run. All Hungarian political parties should support a proposal to exclude farmland from the scope of regulations on the free movement of capital, he added.

JOBBIK

Jobbik deputy Zoltan Magyar told a press conference that the expiry of a moratorium on foreigners buying Hungarian land in May poses great danger. Parliament has only two weeks left to pass legislation that could prevent foreigners from “plundering” Hungarian land, he added.

He called for a founding meeting of the new parliament without delay.

He added that the past five-year term of the EP has proven that Hungary cannot rely on its government-party politicians in Brussels while the left-wing was primarily occupied with launching attacks against Hungary in the EU. Jobbik wants to have arable land removed from the chapter regulating the free movement of capital and keep it protected by special regulations, he added.

Magyar also criticised Fidesz’s attitude in connection with an organic farm in Kishantos in central Hungary, stating that its exemplary achievements, even on a European scale, deserve to be protected by all possible means.

Photo: MTI

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