Resigning presidents will lose allowances in Hungary? – UPDATED

The opposition Párbeszéd – Greens party is submitting a proposal to parliament and starting a petition to strip former presidents from allowances if they haven’t finished their term, the party’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

Presidents resigning due to ill health would be exempt from the legislation, Richárd Barabás said.

Barabás said “a failed president” should not receive the same respect as a “president taking their mandate decently to term”. “Katalin Novák shouldn’t have luxury circumstances . and a gross five million forint (EUR 12,9000) allowance guaranteed by taxpayers,” he said.

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UPDATE: Párbeszéd to nominate former minority rights ombudsman Kaltenbach for Hungary’s next president

The opposition Párbeszéd-Greens party is committed to a direct election of Hungary’s president and “if this materialises” the party will nominate former minority rights ombudsman and lawyer Jenő Kaltenbach for the post, Parbeszed said on Tuesday.

“We believe that Hungary’s next president ought to be a worthy, autonomous person committed to representing the interest of the whole of Hungarian society,” the party said in a statement.

The party said that “in the current deep moral and political crisis” a person “with moral integrity and commitment to the ideal of the republic” should serve as the country’s next president, “one who represents the unity of the nation”.