Liberals: No sufficient reason to activate procedure of article 7 against Hungary

Budapest, September 22 (MTI) – There is no sufficient reason to activate Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union against Hungary, the head of the Hungarian Liberal Party (MLP) Gabor Fodor said in an open letter on Tuesday.

Fodor addressed the letter to Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament.

The ALDE Group called for the activation of the procedure earlier on Tuesday after the adoption by the Hungarian Parliament of a package of legislative amendments to the defence law and the adoption of a special law on defence, which ALDE said strengthens the power of the police and the army, authorising them to make use of their firearms against migrants and refugees under certain circumstances.

Fodor said in his letter that ALDE’s reasoning was incorrect because the amendment of the law did not authorise the army to use force unless there was a justified case of self-defence. If the army was indeed authorised to use weapons against the migrants, MLP would support ALDE’s proposal, he added.

Fodor said there are good reasons to criticise Hungary on migration issues. But to be fair, it is necessary to admit that all of the countries affected have implemented imperfect practices and the delay in introducing a European solution is also partly to blame for the bad practices seen in Hungary, he added.

Photo: MTI

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