Párbeszéd: more time is needed to discuss anti-corruption bills

Parbeszéd is opposed to debating bills submitted by the government related to the debate over the rule of law in an expedited procedure, the head of the parliamentary group of the opposition party said on Sunday.

At an online press conference, Tímea Szabó said the position of her party is clear: “Hungary and the Hungarian people must get their EU support, and no opposition party politician can support the notion that that money doesn’t get to the people”. She added that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has “known very well for years” that Hungary has “not abided by the EU Treaties and failed to follow EU values and principles”.

“The prime minister has done nothing more for twelve years than to steal EU monies using his own strawmen,” Szabó said. She called out the government for “waiting till the last minute” to submit the rule-of-law bills, which “should have been debated since the summer”, and said that opposition parties would get just 20 minutes to speak in the expedited procedure.

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She added that the November 19 deadline for addressing the European Commission’s concerns with the bills would offer enough time to debate them “over several days”.

Szabó called on the government to add to the agenda a package of anti-corruption legislation submitted by Párbeszéd to lawmakers during the week that “genuinely ensures EU monies won’t disappear and corruption is brought to light”.

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DK submitting bill to lawmakers to ‘restore rule of law’

DK is submitting a package of legislation to parliament that aims to “restore the rule of law”, the deputy head of the opposition party’s parliamentary group told MTI on Sunday. Gergely Arató said in a statement that the Orbán government had “dismantled” the democratic Hungarian rule of law “that still functioned before 2010”, adding that is “one of the reasons” Hungary hasn’t accessed its European Union funding.

DK’s package of legislation is a “guarantee” of the restoration of the rule of law, one that EU leaders won’t see as “posturing in the hope of getting money that can be stolen”, he said. The package would have Hungary join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, make the courts and the prosecutor general politically independent, modify the “restricted operation” of the Constitutional Court and restore “balanced information and freedom of the press”, he added.

The proposed law would also allow officials appointed “in a manner not in line with the rule of law” to be recalled, Arató said.

Source: MTI