Socialists submit signatures for referendum on state land sale

Budapest, June 28 (MTI) – A deputy leader of the opposition Socialists on Tuesday submitted over 200,000 signatures to the National Election Office (NVI) to initiate a national referendum on preventing the further sale of state-owned farmland.

The party has collected close to 240,000 signatures, well over the limit of 200,000 required by law for a nationwide referendum to be called by Hungary’s parliament, Zoltán Gőgös told a press conference at NVI’s headquarters in central Budapest. He thanked the opposition LMP, PM, Egyutt and Liberal parties, as well as independent lawmaker Zoltán Kész and trade unions for their help in collecting signatures.

The referendum will not only concern the issue of farmland sale but will be a vote “against ruling Fidesz and the government,” Gőgös said.

The referendum initiative was submitted by Gőgös at the beginning of this year with a view to asking the public if parliament should ban the sale of state-owned farmland by law.

Gőgös said that 10 percent, or 200,000 hectares, of Hungary’s 2 million hectares of state-owned farmland had already been auctioned off under the government’s privatisation programme.