Police launch procedures against natl consultation billboard vandals

Budapest (MTI) – The national police have launched procedures against six people for vandalising billboards tied to the national consultation on the subject of immigration, the police headquarters said on police.hu.

According to information obtained by the police, the six people vandalised a billboard in City Park around midnight on Saturday.

Opposition party Egyutt on Tuesday said it was organising a movement to tear down the billboards attached to the national consultation. On Sunday, chairman Viktor Szigetvari said the party would stand by its activists and offer them every available legal and political support.

Szilard Nemeth, an MP of Fidesz, said that the governing party had reported the vandalism and called on Szigetvari to stop “inciting people to such aggressive and unlawful action”.

In a statement issued later on Sunday, the opposition Socialists said it was “revolting” that Hungarian police were watching the government’s “xenophobic billboards” instead of protecting tax-paying citizens.

Opposition DK said in a statement that they would turn to Hungary’s chief prosecutor on the matter of the billboards. Painting over or tearing down the billboards is not the issue that should be scrutinised, rather the legality of erecting billboards that “serve to incite fear and hatred”, the party added.

Gergely Farkas, a lawmaker for radical nationalist Jobbik, said the matter had been overblown as the government “delegated police” to observe the billboards while the political left had encouraged their defacement. The government is using the billboards “to manipulate public opinion, as propaganda”, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters