Jobbik to submit own constitutional amendment proposal on Monday

Budapest (MTI) – The opposition Jobbik party will submit to parliament its own constitutional amendment proposal on banning the resettlement of foreign nationals in Hungary on Monday.

Jobbik’s proposal is almost identical to the one submitted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last month with the exception of a clause that scraps residency bonds, János Volner, the party’s deputy leader, told a press conference on Sunday.

Volner said the ruling Fidesz party had come to a crossroads. They must now decide if they want to “keep clinging to the billions [of forints] they make from the residency bond scheme through offshore companies” or if they put the safety of the Hungarian people first, he insisted.

He said Jobbik had made it clear in the debates about the government-initiated amendment bill that it considered the safety of Hungarians its number one concern. This means the party will not support any “half solutions” proposed by the government, he said.

Volner quoted Jobbik leader Gábor Vona as saying, “Neither poor migrants, nor rich migrants should be allowed to settle in Hungary. Neither poor terrorists, nor rich terrorists should be allowed to come here.”

Fidesz responded in a statement saying that Jobbik’s move to submit a constitutional amendment bill was nothing more than “political machinations”. “It is an embarrassing and late attempt at obscuring the fact that they have failed Hungary.” Fidesz said Jobbik could not be trusted, arguing that they had already once said that they would support amending the constitution to ban the resettlement of foreigners in Hungary, but when the time had come to vote on the government’s bill, they rejected it.

Fidesz deputy leader Gergely Gulyás said that by rejecting the original bill, Jobbik had caused political damage “not just to the country but to itself as well”. Parliament is a “serious body” and it is impossible for it to amend the constitution within 24 hours, Gulyás told public television M1. He added that there was no reason at present for parliament to put Jobbik’s bill on the agenda.

Source: MTI