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National security committee meeting on Völner case lacks quorum – UPDATE
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A meeting of parliament’s security committee, convened by the opposition to look into corruption charges against former justice state secretary Pál Völner, lacked a quorum on Tuesday, with representatives of the ruling parties staying away.
The agenda for the meeting would have also included a discussion of leaked footage involving government commissioner Attila Sztojka.
Committee chairman János Stummer of Jobbik, Socialist member Zsolt Molnár and LMP member Péter Ungár told a joint press conference that they were “unsurprised” by the absence of the ruling parties.
The three opposition politicians vowed to restore the committee’s controls and review the body’s practice of classifying information and of licencing intelligence activities if they won the next election in April. They also pledged to hike the salaries of national security personnel.
UPDATE
Molnár said the opposition wanted to ask questions about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, too, but “the same thing happened as during the 2014 and 2018 campaigns: the ruling parties are being secretive and boycotting meetings.”
Concerning the footage involving Sztojka, Ungar said that the case raised the question of whether the interior ministry’s practice of collecting information was legitimate and “the information is being used for party political purposes”. He added that the earlier Pegasus spy software scandal had raised “the same suspicion”.