Presidential Hungary: will the next Hungarian president be elected by the people?

Opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) MEP Klára Dobrev said on Sunday that DK will start collecting signatures in support of a proposal that voters should directly decide who should be the next president of the republic.

Dobrev said in her Facebook post that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán decided who were the previous three presidents of Hungary, “and we all know how that turned out”.

First he chose a head of state who “plagiarised half of their doctorate thesis”, then he opted for “a signature machine bereft of their own opinion”, and finally he selected someone who granted a presidential pardon to the assistant of a paedophile criminal, the opposition politician said.

Dobrev said that if Orbán were to choose again, then an “unworthy party soldier” would become Hungary’s next president. DK, she added, would propose that, like is most other European countries, the people should directly elect the head of state.

DK will soon start collecting signatures at street booths and online in support of their proposal, she said.

Jobbik calls for president to be elected directly

Fidesz parliamentary group leader: On the right mistakes have consequences

On the right, mistakes have consequences, Máté Kocsis, the Fidesz parliamentary group leader, told public radio on Sunday in connection with Katalin Novák, who has proffered her resignation.

Kocsis referred to a “rare political situation”, and he said Novák had made a responsible decision to resign and admit her mistake in connection with her pardon of the deputy director of a children’s home who had been convicted for helping to cover up child abuse.

He said in the interview that Novák’s resignation had been “a straightforward decision”, and he also noted that Judit Varga, who led the Fidesz list for the upcoming EP election, had also taken responsibility for her part in the pardon, when she countersigned it during her time as minister of justice.

The Fidesz politician said the left wing, however, had been mired in “a thousand and one scandals” in the recent past but had failed to take responsibility. He said the leader of the Democratic Coalition, Ferenc Gyurcsány, “should never have returned to politics under any circumstances”.

Kocsis noted that following Novák’s decision, several parties proposed electing the head of state directly. This, he added, had not occurred to the Democratic Coalition or the Socialist Party when their representatives were in government.

Their demand, he added, may have had credibility had they made such an initiative when they had a parliamentary majority.

Meanwhile, Kocsis said that were Novák to sign her resignation today, MPs would have to decide within fifteen days whether to accept it or not, adding that this decision could be taken on Feb 26, the first day of the spring session.

He said that were parliament to accept her resignation — which he said he had no serious doubt they would do — then the new head of state must be elected within thirty days, so Hungary would have a new president in March.

The Fidesz group leader said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s proposal to change the constitution with a view obviating the right to a presidential pardon in cases involving child abuse was “a child protection measure”.

Kocsis said it was strange that the left wing was vehement in wanting the head of state gone, but had failed to vote for any child protection amendments previously.

Nevertheless, he said it was likely that the left wing would now vote for Orbán’s amendment, “though I wouldn’t rule out the opposite either”.

Also, the second package of the child protection law will be submitted to lawmakers in the spring, he noted.

Green opposition Párbeszéd calls for joint opposition presidential candidate