Ruling parties, Jobbik reach agreement on constitutional amendment proposal

Budapest, October 11 (MTI) – The ruling Fidesz and KDNP parties and opposition Jobbik came to an agreement on the government’s constitutional amendment proposal in connection with European Union migrant quotas at a meeting on Tuesday.

The proposal was submitted to parliament by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday.

The Socialists and green opposition LMP stayed away from the event which was convened by Fidesz parliamentary group leader Lajos Kósa as a five-party meeting to discuss the constitutional amendment proposal.

Kósa said after the meeting that the three parties agreed that only the Hungarian parliament should have a right to determine the rules governing how non-Hungarian and non-EU citizens can enter and live in Hungary, and that only Hungarian authorities can rule on asylum requests from third-country nationals.

Kósa said technical questions that may arise in connection with the amendment did not concern the debate on the proposal, adding that it seemed likely that parliament would be able to pass the amendment.

He explained that talks on the proposal were ongoing on two levels: alongside the talks among the parliamentary parties, the prime minister is conducting his own series of talks with the other party leaders.

Kósa criticised the Socialists for sitting out the meeting, saying that Socialist leader Gyula Molnár and group leader Bertalan Tóth had made contradictory comments about the amendment proposal.

He said LMP’s reason for staying away from Tuesday’s talks was that “their feelings were hurt” after they were the only ones to show up for a meeting about the proposal on Monday which Kósa said “had not been convened by anybody”.

Jobbik group leader János Volner said that with the passage of the amendment Hungary would gain substantive legal protection from migrant redistribution quotas. He said his party had proposed that parliament should clarify the scope of third-country nationals. Jobbik has also proposed to make the law governing the settlement of foreign nationals in Hungary a cardinal law requiring a two-thirds majority in parliament, he added. Volner said it was “sad” that the other opposition parties had not shown up for the meeting.

Source: MTI