Opposition expects special parliament session to reach quorum

The opposition parties on Friday said they were confident that a special session of parliament they have initiated to discuss how the amendments to the labour code were approved and opposition lawmakers at subsequent demonstrations were treated earlier this month will reach the quorum.

Speaking at a press conference held jointly by parliament’s opposition parties, Párbeszéd lawmaker Sándor Burány said they had been told by Fidesz MP György Balla that the ruling parties plan to take part in the special session.

Burány said the session would be aimed at discussing the “unacceptable legal violations” that he said had taken place in recent weeks.

He said the opposition hopes to discuss two draft resolutions at the session. These would declare that parliament’s December 12 session, which saw the approval of the labour code amendment, had been conducted unlawfully and that the immunity of several MPs at the headquarters of public broadcaster MTVA was breached when they were “physically assaulted” by security guards during their protest on Dec 16-17. (ANTI-GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATORS PROTEST FOR THE LIBERATION OF PUBLIC MEDIA – PHOTOS, VIDEO)

DK

The Democratic Coalition’s Ágnes Vadai said the opposition would use every tool at its disposal to express its views. She said parliament’s defence and law enforcement committee should also look into the events that took place at MTVA’s headquarters.

MSZP

Ildiko Borbely Bangó of the Socialist Party called on House Speaker László Kövér not to be “selective” in his assessment of the events of the last three weeks in parliament. She called onKövér to also look into whether deputy speaker Sándor Lezsák had the right to cut off the microphones of opposition MPs in the general debate of the labour code amendment.

Jobbik

Jobbik’s Gergely Farkas said one of the reasons why his party was supporting holding a special session of parliament was because Kover had been absent from house committee sessions for a long time. He said Jobbik would also support all extra-parliamentary means through which people can voice their opposition to the “slave law” and the government’s policies.

On another subject, Burány called it “unacceptable” that the government had “cowardly” removed the statue of Imre Nagy, Hungary’s prime minister during the 1956 revolution, from Martyrs’ Square near Parliament “under the cover of the night”.

Fidesz

The ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat parties will not attend the special session convened for January 3, Fidesz’s parliamentary group told MTI in a statement.

In the statement, Fidesz called it “hypocritical” to call a special session after “an attempt to obstruct” a session of parliament and after opposition politicians participated “along with Soros activists in premeditated, violent acts and overtook public institutions”.

It is “obvious that they are not interested in Hungarian people but only in wreaking havoc and power … they put on an act at the MTVA headquarters and will do the same now,” the statement said.

Source: MTI