Socialist MPs prevented from submitting referendum initiative – Photos, Video – UPDATE

Budapest, February 23 (MTI) – Socialist deputy group leader Zoltán Lukács attempted to submit a referendum initiative concerning Hungary’s Sunday shopping ban but could not get inside the National Election Office early on Tuesday morning.

Lukács told MTI that he had arrived at the building at 6am, but the entrance was “blocked by 15-20 people, pumped up and bald”. The group claimed to be “applicants”, too, Lukács said, and suggested that the “aggressive provocation” had been organised by the government to thwart the Socialist referendum proposal.

Lukács and Istvan Nyakó, another Socialist deputy, were waiting for a supreme court Kúria decision to throw out an earlier referendum initiative concerning the contested Sunday ban. With that move, a new referendum could be proposed, the first submission coming before the Election Office.

Once the Kúria decision arrived, however, the Socialist deputies found that their submission had been preceded by proposals by two private individuals.

Nyakó filed a complaint against the procedure.

The opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party demanded that the authorities ensure the operation of democratic institutions. In a statement, PM called it “scandalous” that “one should fight with pumped up bouncers” before they could exercise their democratic rights. “The government appears to be terrified of facing voters and will not be deterred from any means to thwart free expression,” PM said.

Video in Hungarian

UPDATE

The main question: who are these “pumped up and bald” guys? The answer is simple, they are FTC’s security men. The FTC football team’s chairman name is Gábor Kubatov who also has been party director of Fidesz since July 1, 2006.

You can see one of this guy in the video (right side). He is also FTC’s security man.

UPDATE

The Jobbik party said it demands answers from the government and Fidesz about what happened in front of the Election Office. Lawmaker György Szilágyi said the incident was not just about the Socialists not being able to submit a referendum question, but also about Fidesz “feeling like it can do anything”. Szilágyi said Jobbik wants to know how much the people involved in the incident were paid and from what sources, as well as who ordered them to be there and what their official assignment was. Szilágyi told MTI that his party would initiate setting up a parliamentary investigative committee led by Jobbik to look into the details of the incident and to prevent similar ones from occurring in the future.

The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said it was “sickening” that the government used “bulked up skinheads” to prevent the Socialists from submitting their referendum initiative. Zsolt Gréczy, the party’s spokesman, said that when DK wanted to submit its own referendum initiative in connection with the shopping ban, it was faced with the tightening of the referendum law along with various other legal obstacles.