Election 2014 – Fidesz in firm lead over opposition
(MTI) – The ruling Fidesz party had a firm lead over opposition parties in a poll taken just three weeks before the general election, pollster Tarki said on Wednesday.
Fully 43 percent said they would re-elect the current government while 36 percent opted for a change, the poll said.
Of the whole population, 38 percent supported the governing parties while the five-party left-of-centre opposition alliance for a government change had 16 percent support and the radical nationalist Jobbik party 15 percent. The small opposition LMP party had 4 percent support in the whole sample.
Two percent of respondents cited “other parties”, 19 percent said they would not vote for any of the listed parties and another six percent declined to respond.
Among respondents with clear voting preferences, Fidesz had 51 percent support, as against 21 percent supporting the five-party opposition alliance, 20 percent Jobbik and 6 percent LMP. Other parties were supported by 2 percent in this group as well.
Fully 54 percent of voters promised to turn out to the ballot, Tarki said, adding that a higher turnout would favour the opposition and a lower turnout could be the make-or-break point for LMP, whose support is near the 5 percent entry threshold to parliament.
The poll was taken on March 12-19.
Photo: MTI
Election 2014 – Hungary loser of IMF loan repayment, says Bajnai
Budapest, March 26 (MTI) – Hungary lost 14 billion forints (EUR 44.86m) on the early repayment of a loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gordon Bajnai, leader of the electoral alliance E14-PM, said on today.
Bajnai spoke in response to economic state secretary Gabor Orban saying earlier in the day that the early repayment of the IMF loan had helped Hungary rebuild investor confidence last year.
Bajnai said in a statement that the Hungarian state had exchanged its IMF loan for a more expensive one. He insisted the repayment was similar to taking out a loan under “usurious” conditions in order to repay another one. Hungary lost 14 billion forints on the “propaganda move” of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and central bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy, he said.
Bajnai added that Hungary has signed a loan to finance the Paks nuclear upgrade which is twice as expensive as the one it had repaid to the IMF. The loan — while sacrificing the country’s financial-economic sovereignty — will have the “added bonus” of electricity costing double of its current price and the economy being sacrificed to Russian power and financial interests for decades, he said.
Gabor Orban said earlier on Wednesday that the IMF had begun to acknowledge the achievements of the Hungarian economy and it was hoped that the European Commission and rating agencies would soon follow suit. Hungary was no longer an “IMF programme country” after it had repaid its loan, but talks were held last week on an annual evaluation of economic status, where the IMF was “constructive”.
The state secretary said dollar bond issues worth 3 billion froints so far would suffice to finance two-thirds of foreign loans this year. The bond issue has temporarily raised the debt-to-GDP ratio by 2.3 percentage points, but the government continues to stand by its goal of debt reduction by the end of the year, he added.
Photo: MTI
Election 2014 – Top court rules placards on pylons okay during election
Budapest, March 26 (MTI) – The Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal against an earlier decision by the Kuria, the supreme court, thereby upholding the Kuria’s decision to allow the placement of election placards on electricity pylons.
The decision was posted on the Constitutional Court’s website on Wednesday.
The Kuria ruling does not limit the rights of electoral candidates or related freedoms to express opinions, nor does it discriminate against any candidate, the court said in its justification of the ruling.
The Kuria earlier ruled to allow the placards, arguing that during the election campaign it is the election procedures law which must be applied concerning the placement of adverts, and this law does not prohibit such acts.
Photo: csepel.info
The leftist opposition alliance promises free tuition to undergraduates
Budapest, March 25 (MTI) – The five-party opposition Unity alliance has promised free tuition to undergraduates from September.
Istvan Hiller of the Socialists and Gergely Karacsony of E14-PM told a joint press conference on Monday that the measure would help to persuade young people not to leave the country while making higher education accessible to poor students.
Unity will return the nearly 60 billion forints (EUR 192m) to higher education which has been withdrawn from the sector by the Orban government, Hiller said.
He also promised to launch a new programme from September 2015, 85 percent financed from European Union resources, enabling every student to spend 3-5 months abroad learning a foreign language. Costing an annual 7 billion forints to the Hungarian state, the programme would set the “reasonable expectation” that every student should have passed an intermediate language exam by the time they graduate, he added.
Karacsony said the past four years had been a “tragic” time for higher education. Prime Minister Viktor Orban introduced “the highest tuition fee in Europe,” which partly explains why the number of applicants to universities and colleges has dropped by a third during the period, he added.
The ruling Fidesz party said Hiller was making “desperate and false promises” to youngsters. But if the past Socialist government is anything to go by, graduates would hardly get their degree free-of-charge, it said in a statement. When Hiller was minister of education in the Gyurcsany government in 2006, one of his first measures was to introduce tuition fees, the party noted.
The manifesto of Ferenc Gyurcsany’s Democratic Coalition clearly includes the introduction of tuition fees and Socialist leader Attila Mesterhazy’s 2010 election programme also included tuition fees payable by the majority of students.
Currently 59,000 students in higher education get full state financing and disadvantaged students can benefit from the largest scholarship scheme ever introduced in Hungary, Fidesz said. Students loans are cheaper than ever and a special programme has been launched to help people pass a language exam, which is a condition for passing their degree, its statement added.
Photo: www.univpecs.pte.hu
Election 2014 – Socialists call on Orban to attend TV debate
(MTI) – The opposition Socialists have called on Prime Minister Viktor Orban to attend a televised debate with party leader and PM candidate for the opposition Unity alliance, Attila Mesterhazy.
Orban is hiding and is not willing to participate in a debate, because the government had done nothing over the past four years to help young people, Tibor Szanyi, a senior Socialist, told a press conference on Sunday.
The Fidesz government had “brutally slashed” support for higher education and introduced tuition fees under a different name, Szanyi said. He added that one issue Orban needed to discuss was the Paks nuclear plant upgrade and how he had turned Hungary into “Russia’s slave”. Szanyi called the Paks contract a “humiliating and dangerous” usury deal and said an exorbitant interest would be collected even if the power plant was never completed, while Hungary would be charged huge penalties if it was late with a payment. He said that on April 6 voters would have to decide whether they want to join the East or the West, whether to “live under the threat of the Russian bear or free, as a member of the community of European countries”.
Roland Gur, a Socialist party candidate for European Parliament, said that the government had hiked minimum wage by a rate lower than inflation and reduced job-seeking allowances to only three months.
In contrast, the Socialists have a real programme to help young people: they would restore a mandatory schooling age of 18, extend jobless benefits and make it possible for all university students to start their studies free of tuition. A government led by Mesterhazy would guarantee that all young people under the age of 25 would find a job or professional training position within four months, Gur said.
The ruling Fidesz party said that it was only during the reign of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP) that Hungarians lived “under the threat of the Russian bear”. The Gyurcsany coalition had already shown how it would govern the country, it had caused its demise and nearly made Hungary share the fate of Greece, the party said in a statement.
Photo: MTI
Fidesz: EU Money To Fund Motorway Projects
(MTI) – Motorways in Hungary until 2020 have to reach the country’s borders, to bring closer ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Friday.
Addressing a forum in Hodmezovasarhely, southern Hungary, Janos Lazar noted the missing sections of the M3 motorway to the direction of Kosice (Kassa) in Slovakia, the M43 to Nadlac (Nagylak), Romania, and the M6 in the direction of the Croatian border in the south.
The core of Hungary’s transport strategy is to link up every county seat with a motorway link, he added.
He said after relieving households of their FX home loan stocks, it is equally important to give help to car mortgage holders who are indebted in foreign currency.
Photo: MTI
Each ethnic minority likely to have speaker in next parlt
Budapest, March 20 (MTI) – Hungary’s 13 ethnic minorities will probably have each a speaker without voting rights in the next parliament, as the minimum requirement is one valid vote on the minority’s list at the upcoming general election.
Voters wishing to vote on a minority list rather than on any of the political parties, have until Friday afternoon to have themselves registered.
So far, over 15,000 people have registered as Roma voters and nearly 12,000 as ethnic Germans; all other minorities have fewer than 2,000 voters, according to figures from the National Elections Office (NVI). Altogether over 30,000 have registered as voters of an ethnic minority.
Minorities will need an estimated 20,000 votes each to send a deputy with full voting rights to parliament, 25 percent of that of a political party with a national list.
Photo: csepel.info – Ábel Attila
Election 2014 – Top court rules govt campaign slogan unlawful
Budapest, March 18 (MTI) – The Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, ruled on Tuesday that commercial broadcaster TV2 broke the election law by airing a 50 second government information advert which bore the ruling Fidesz party’s slogan “Hungary is performing better” and appeared similar to Fidesz adverts. The top court thereby overruled a decision by the National Election Committee rejecting an opposition complaint about the ad.
The Socialists and E-PM had turned to the election committee with the complaint about the March 9 broadcast, saying it was visually very similar to adverts by the Fidesz and Christian Democrats and its slogan was identical.
After the election committee rejected their complaint, the left-of-centre opposition parties asked the Kuria to review the committee’s decision.
The court also told the television station not to infringe the law in future.
In a statement, TV2, owned by MTM-SBS Televizio Zrt, said it respected the Kuria’s decision but did not agree with its judgement that the broadcast of the government’s “advert for social purposes” had broken the law. The broadcaster argued that it was not legally obliged to check the contents of ads for social purposes.
The government’s information centre said in a statement that it respected the Kuria’s “stricter” interpretation of the law and would not place the advert again.
E-PM said in a statement in reaction to the court’s ruling that there was now proof that the government had used taxpayers’ money to try to manipulate the election and had violated the principle of equality between parties.
Photo: kormany.hu
Election 2014 – Fidesz campaign spending above legal cap, says Transparency
(MTI) – Campaign spending by the ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat parties and their backers has topped the legal limit, a Transparency International (TI) official said on Monday.
Parties are legally allowed to spend a maximum of 1 billion forints (EUR 3.2m) to finance their campaigns for the April 6 general election, TI’s legal director, Miklos Ligeti, told a press conference.
By the end of February, the co-ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats already spent more than twice that amount with the help of the central government and the pro-government Civil Unity Forum (COF), he said. The left-of-centre Unity alliance, in comparison, has spent 680 million forints, radical nationalist Jobbik 650 million and also opposition LMP 310 million, he added.
Transparency calculated that COF’s election campaign has cost 570 million forints and the central government’s campaign “Hungary is doing better” has cost another 540 million, he said.
Photo: valasztas2014.hir24.hu
Election 2014 – Hungarians can register to vote at foreign missions by March 29
(MTI) – Voters have two more weeks, until March 29, to register to vote in the April 6 general election at one of Hungary’s foreign missions.
So far 16,298 Hungarians have indicated their request to be put on a foreign representation’s register, the national electoral office NVI said on its website on Saturday.
The highest number of registrations, 3,016, were received in London, the second largest, 1,682, in Munich and the third, 1,137 in Brussels. Berlin took 796 registrations, Paris 599, New York 531, Dublin 516 and Vienna 514.
Fewer than ten people registered to vote at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, Vilnius, Santiago, Tirana, Nairobi, Yekaterinburg and Tunis, among other places.
After the deadline of March 29 it is not possible to ask to be put on a foreign mission’s register. Voters can modify their entry to a different foreign representation or cancel their request by this date, the NVI said.
The request can be filed personally at an election office, by post or electronically.
Photo: szabadgondolat.wordpress.com
Election 2014 – More than 210,000 ethnic Hungarians intend to vote
(MTI) – More than 210,000 naturalised Hungarians without a permanent address in Hungary have so far asked to register for the April 6 election, the website of the National Election Office shows.
So far 174,369 have registered altogether, 94,114 in Romania, 26,937 in Serbia, 1,977 in Germany and 1,017 in the US. The office registered 3,334 individuals from countries that ban dual citizenship.
Ethnic Hungarians abroad without a permanent address in Hungary can register for the April 6 election until March 22, and can do so online at www.nvi.hu. They must vote by mail and can only vote for a party list.
Last week Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen announced the 600,000th application received from abroad for naturalisation. The number of those granted Hungarian citizenship under a fast-track procedure will rise to 550,000 in a matter of weeks, he added.
Hungarians beyond the border will, for the first time, be able to vote at the upcoming election on April 6.
Photo: www.boon.hu
Mesterhazy: Revealing truth in Simon case also in Socialists’ interest
Budapest, March 12 (MTI) – The main opposition Socialists trust that the public prosecutor’s office will thoroughly investigate the Simon case and it is also in the party’s interest that the truth is fully revealed, Socialist leader Attila Mesterhazy said on Wednesday.
“We are not proud of him,” Mesterhazy said about Gabor Simon, former deputy chairman of the party, adding that “You don’t suppose I’m glad about these things and easily shake them off.”
He said the Socialists dissociate themselves from Simon’s past acts and consider them unacceptable. In effect, these acts represent a “punishment to the Socialist party,” he added.
Since Simon has resigned from all his titles in the party, the Socialists have no means to clear up the situation, Mesterhazy said. The party cannot initiate a better investigation than “the public prosecutor’s office headed by former Fidesz lawmaker Peter Polt,” he added.
Simon was arrested on Monday on suspicion of asking a friend to open a bank account in his name with a Hungarian bank using a forged passport from a southern African country. Simon quit his post as the party’s deputy leader and gave up his seat in parliament in February, after reports that he had undeclared assets worth 240 million forints (EUR 780,000) held on an Austrian bank account.
Photo: www.napravalo.hu
Former Socialist official arrested accused of forgery
(MTI) – Gabor Simon, a former Socialist official and lawmaker, has been arrested on charges of forgery, the Central Investigating Chief Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday.
Spokesman Imre Keresztes said Simon was taken into custody today after questioning. He is suspected of having asked a friend to open a bank account in his name with a Hungarian bank, using a forged passport from a south African country. The evidence strongly suggests Simon was an accessory to forgery, the investigating prosecutor’s statement said.
Additionally, Simon submitted documents to parliament’s immunity committee that did not include his undeclared assets.
Simon quit his post as the party’s deputy leader and gave up his seat in parliament in February, after reports that he had undeclared assets worth 240 million forints (EUR 780,000) held on an Austrian bank account.
Keresztes said the prosecutor’s office had decided to take Simon into custody because it is assumed that he would attempt to influence witnesses and destroy, forge or hide documents to prevent or endanger the success of the investigation. Additionally, it is assumed that he would commit further crimes, Keresztes said.
Photo: MTI
Deadline for entering party lists for EP election: April 22
(MTI) – Parties have until 4pm on April 22 to register their lists for the European parliamentary election scheduled for May 25, a decree published in the official gazette Magyar Kozlony on Monday said.
Under the decree issued by the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, the official campaign will start on April 5. To enter a list for the EP election, parties should collect at least 20,000 valid signatures by 34 days prior to the election date and register their list with the National Election Committee (NVB).
Non-Hungarian EU citizens who have residence in Hungary (slightly more than 100,000 people according to NVB figures) can request by 4pm on May 9 to be included in the Hungarian voter register if they wish to vote for Hungarian party lists.
Hungarians who will be outside the country on the day of the vote can also submit their vote on any of Hungary’s 97 representative offices abroad if they register to do so by 4pm on May 17.
Photo: meszarosmarton.files.wordpress.com
Election 2014 – Vona: Jobbik to bring change after 24 years of failed governing
(MTI) – The radical nationalist Jobbik party has four years of experience in parliament, a good programme and “excellent” candidates for the election that should bring about change after 24 years of failed governing, the party’s leader told a press conference on Saturday.
The three main pillars of Jobbik’s programme are livelihood, ensuring fair wages and pensions; order, ensuring public safety and the peace of citizens and families; and accountability, especially for corrupt politicians, he said in Kecskemet in central Hungary before meeting locals at a forum.
Concerning politicians, Vona said anyone violating the law must be punished without exception. He pledged to scrap parliamentary immunity and double for a politician or a parliamentary deputy the sentence an ordinary citizen would receive for the same crime.
Vona also pledged to declassify all records and documents.
Jobbik was already earlier popular among youth and men, but now has become increasingly popular among older people and women, said Vona, the party’s candidate for prime minister.
Photo: MTI
Election 2014 – Socialist Party: Women Would Be Beneficiaries Of Left Govt
(MTI) – Women would be beneficiaries of a new, left government, as well as children, pensioners, job-holders and small and medium size enterprises, the leader of the main opposition Socialists told an event marking International Women’s Day on Saturday.
The Socialists represent primarily these groups, stand up for them and have crafted their comprehensive policies of governing around supporting them, Attila Mesterhazy, the left alliance’s candidate for prime minister, said.
Outlining the alliance’s programme for women, Mesterhazy said they would promote a higher ratio of women working in senior positions in politics and the economy, and would push for wages that are equal to those of men. They would also promote family-friendly workplaces, ensure that young mothers can return to work and expand the option of retirement for women after 40 years of employment, he said. The alliance would declare zero tolerance for domestic violence and give priority to women’s preventive health programmes, Mesterhazy said.
They would ensure more support to single mothers raising children and scrap nursery care fees, he said.
Governing Fidesz, in response, said the party has all the time considered important in its policy decisions supporting women, and mothers, not only on Women’s Day.
Listing related measures, Robert Zsigo, the party’s spokesman, told a press conference that Fidesz in the past four years introduced the option for part-time work for women, a family tax scheme, a child-care extra benefit, reintroduced the 3-year child care support and increased the capacity of nurseries.
Their measures also included launching a scheme to support young couples buying their first home, Zsigo said, adding the wages of about 200,000 women working in the public sector were increased and the option for women to retire after 40 years of employment was introduced.
As a result of labour measures, the employment of women reached a 22-year high, he said.
Photo: MTI
Ader sets date of EP election for May 25
(MTI) – Hungarian President Janos Ader set the date of the European Parliamentary election for May 25, the president’s office told MTI today.
This is the third occasion Hungarians will decide on their parliamentary deputies in the EP.
“The right of free elections is one of the most important constitutional pillars of our democracy. At the same time this right is an opportunity to influence the future of Europe”, it said.
The president noted that Hungary had tendered its accession request twenty years ago and the country had become a fellow member of the family of European democracies in 2004.
Hungary will send 21 deputies to the 751-member legislative body in Brussels. However, along with 11 other member states, Hungary will give up one place to accommodate deputies of the newly-joined Croatia.
Photo: meszarosmarton.files.wordpress.com, fideszbp3.hu
Election 2014 – Eighteen national party lists registered
(MTI) – The National Election Office (NVI) on Friday registered 12 national party lists for the April 6 general election, raising the total to 18.
Under Hungary’s election law, parties that enter individual candidates in at least 27 constituencies in nine counties and Budapest can field a national list.
The six parties registered previously were the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance, the opposition left-of-centre Unity alliance (comprising the Socialist Party, Together – Party for a New Era, Democratic Coalition, Dialogue for Hungary and the Liberal Party), the radical nationalist Jobbik, the green party Politics Can Be Different (LMP), the Homeland Not For Sale Party and the Workers’ Party.
In its Friday session, NVI added the following 12 parties to the scope of contenders: Party for a Fit and Healthy Hungary, the Social Democratic Civic Party, the Independent Smallholders Party, the Together 2014 Party, the New Hungary Party, ex-Socialist Katalin Szili’s Community for Social Justice, the Hungarian Roma Party, the Green Party, the New Dimension Party, the Democratic Community of Welfare and Freedom (the successor to the Hungarian Democratic Forum MDF), the Unity Party and Maria Seres’s Allies.
In addition, NVI has registered all the 13 national minority lists submitted by the Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Roma, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian communities.
Photo: MTI