Opposition seeks to convene extraordinary parlt session for the measures and Chinese vaccine

Representatives of the five parliamentary opposition parties and the extra-parliamentary Momentum Movement on Tuesday initiated an extraordinary session to discuss government measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic, seen by the opposition as insufficient.

The proposed session should convene on February 1, and discuss proposals to set up three ad-hoc committees to look into the government’s economic measures, issues around handling the epidemic in Hungary, as well as vaccine purchases from China. A proposed amendment aimed at ensuring the continued operations of commercial broadcaster Klubradio would also be on the session’s agenda.

The parties held a press conference in front of Parliament, at which Momentum vice chair Anna Orosz said that

the government’s recent measures “pose the question if they are working to save lives or to stuff their front men with money”.

LMP deputy group leader Antal Csárdi said that the economic ad-hoc committee should ascertain “if the government’s measures in fact serve the interests of Hungarian society”. He insisted that “using the crisis as an excuse, the government does nothing but pay off its own oligarchs, while the largest part of society is on an existential tight rope”.

Gergely Arató, deputy group leader of the Democratic Coalition, voiced concern about the Chinese vaccine, not licenced by the European Medicines Agency, and called on the government to provide details of licencing in Hungary, purchase price and possible intermediaries in the acquisitions.