Jobbik appeals election cttee rejection of referendum over farmland ownership

Budapest, March 21 (MTI) – The radical nationalist Jobbik party will submit an appeal to the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, against the National Election Committee’s (NVI) refusal of its referendum initiative on keeping farmland in Hungarian hands, a party lawmaker said today.

Zoltan Magyar told a press conference that NVI’s Thursday decision was scandalous.

Jobbik’s proposal could make the government initiate talks about a review of the European Union accession treaty with a view to keeping farmland in Hungarian hands, he said. The referendum would not be conducive to cancelling the accession agreement, he added.

Magyar said the NVI decision was made under government pressure, adding that the committee should have assessed the initiative more carefully. All the more so because in Lithuanian the same question would be put to a referendum this autumn, he said.

NVI said on Thursday that the question proposed for the referendum would impinge on an international agreement. Head of the committee Andras Patyi and the majority of members said the question could not be authenticated because it affected the Treaty of Lisbon.

Jobbik leader Gabor Vona submitted the initiative in January. In the referendum, voters would be asked if they wished to see Hungary’s accession agreement with the European Union amended to allow farmland in Hungary to be exclusively owned by the state, Hungarian religious organisations or Hungarian private individuals residing in the country.

Photo: jobbik.hu

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