LMP submits referendum initiatives to thwart Paks upgrade

Budapest, March 2 (MTI) – The opposition LMP party has submitted referendum initiatives aimed at obstructing the planned upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant.

LMP co-leader Bernadett Szél told a press conference on Thursday that the upgrade project must be put to a referendum so that voters have an opportunity to pass decision over the matter. She added that the constitution must also be changed if its provisions are in the way of a referendum, and noted that such modifications had been implemented before referendums on Hungary’s NATO and EU integration.

Ákos Hadházy, LMP’s other co-leader, said that the upgrade project could cost an estimated 6,000 billion forints (EUR 19.5bn), which he said equaled a contribution of 2 million forints from each Hungarian family. Voters are entitled to have a say in matters of such magnitude, while the government’s dialogue with the people had been “fictitious”, he insisted.