election

Economy Minister: Government not ruling out single-digit personal income tax rate

varga mihály economy minister hungary

The government has not given up on its plan to bring the personal income tax rate into the single digits from the current 15 percent rate, the economy minister said in an interview to Friday’s edition of the daily Magyar Idők.

The government would only be able to pass another larger tax cut if all the conditions for it are in place: a stable and growing economy and an improving jobs market, Mihály Varga told the paper. The country must also be on a sound financial footing and make sure that it maintains its “hard-fought” balanced budgetary position, he added.

Varga added that when deciding on tax cuts, it was important to consider the country’s capacity for them. Unlike the Socialist governments of the past, the current Fidesz-led government is not offering “irresponsible handouts” or engaging in “wasteful spending” to attract votes, he said.

“If voters give us the mandate in April, we will continue to safeguard Hungary’s budgetary balance over the next four years

and we will exercise the same kind of discipline when dealing with the country’s finances that we have over the past eight years,” the minister said.

Varga also noted that according to a recent European study, tax burdens in Hungary decreased by more than eight percentage points between 2010 and 2017. Hungary implemented the largest tax cuts out of all European Union member states during this period, he said. In addition, Hungary has the second lowest personal income tax rate in the bloc, he said.

Varga said that while taxes have gone down, wages have risen both in the private and public sectors, thanks to a six-year agreement signed between representatives of the government and businesses in 2016.

Parliament votes to declare January 13 day of religious freedom

january calendar public holiday

Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to declare January 13 the day of religious freedom to mark the anniversary of the Torda Edict, the very first law to declare freedom of religion.

The motion was approved unanimously with 142 votes.

The law states that the right to religious freedom as declared in the Torda Edict can be considered a precursor to modern democracy and a fundamental value of Christian Europe.

The law will come into effect the day after its publication.

Convened in 1568, the Diet of Torda (now Turda in Romania) issued an edict also known as Patent of Toleration as an early attempt to guarantee religious freedom in Christian Europe. Seen as a brave move toward religious toleration and a direct renunciation of national establishment of a single religion, the Edict of Torda legally applied to Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and Unitarians.

Movement of former government officials calls for PM candidate debate

A self-purported opposition advisory group made up of former ministers and government officials has proposed holding live televised prime ministerial and policy experts’ debates.

Detailing their proposal at a press conference on Tuesday, members of the recently founded Válasszunk! 2018 (Let’s vote! 2018 – V18) group said the policy experts’ debates would be divided into three segments, each focusing on a variety of specific policy issues. This would be followed by a debate between the PM candidates of the factions that have the highest chances of forming a parliamentary group.

Hungary’s current election process is “in desperate need” of a second round of voting, former European commissioner and foreign minister Péter Balázs said. Its absence has a severe distorting effect on the race. It follows that a single-round election system especially demands debates, Balázs said.

“Without a manifesto, one cannot run in the election and there can be no election without debates,” he said.

Balázs said V18 would leave it up to the parties taking part in the debates and media outlets to work out the rules of the debates.

Commenting on the suggestion that the ruling parties would never agree to participate in the debates, Balázs said there were internationally-tested solutions for such a scenario. As an example he suggested that organisers could play clips of past remarks on a given subject by politicians who are absent from the debate.

featured image: MTI

Opposition to file complaint against House Speaker Kövér over comments on redrawing of electoral map

house speaker hungary kövér

The opposition Socialist Party on Monday said it would file a criminal complaint against House Speaker László Kövér for electoral fraud after an audio recording of him surfaced talking about the government’s motives in the redrawing of the boundaries of election districts.

In the audio recording that surfaced late last week on news blog Reflektor, the house speaker can be heard saying that there had been “some geographical juggling” on the government’s part when it redrew constituency boundaries in the 2012 electoral bill.

Speaking at a press conference, Socialist Party board member Balázs Bárány said the recording of Kövér could be taken as a confession that Fidesz had “cheated” in the 2014 election.

Bárány said there were no historical, cultural or geographical reasons behind the current voting district boundaries. “The goal is clear: the vote of a Fidesz voter has to be worth more than that of someone who votes for the opposition,” Bárány said.

He noted that in 2014, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had also voiced concerns over the electoral law.

“Now that László Kövér has admitted that one of the concerns at the time was valid, it might be worthwhile talking about the other concerns, too,” Barany said. One of the examples he cited was that the current election law “differentiates between voters based on their being an ethnic Hungarian living beyond the border or a young Budapest resident who had fled to London”.

Bárány said Fidesz was “terrified” of losing voters and was now looking to “fill the gap” in its base.

He said most Hungarians wanted change, adding that the way to bring about change would be to vote for the Socialist-Párbeszed alliance in the April election.

Jobbik: House Speaker admits election fraud

Jobbik‘s spokeperson said:

Parliament Speaker László Kövér’s leaked speech has busted Fidesz real bad. We have always suspected that the corrupt governing party was driven by nothing but its own political advantage when they redrew the boundaries of electorates. Based on the earlier district distribution Fidesz would not have had a two-thirds majority in 2014, that’s why they gerrymandered the electorates and cancelled the two-round election system. László Kövér has just confirmed that when it comes to money and power, Fidesz refrains from nothing, not even election fraud or false propaganda.

Photo: MTI

Meeting with rapporteur of EP report concerning the launching of Article 7 concluded

“Tuesday’s meeting with Judith Sargentini, the rapporteur of the European Parliament’s investigation into the state of the rule of law in Hungary, has been concluded”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Parliamentary State Secretary told the press.

Levente Magyar recalled: It will be based on the report that the EP will decide whether or not to launch Article 7 proceedings, which could lead to the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights.

“There is a sharp conflict between certain Brussels institutions and politicians and Hungary with regard to immigration. Hungary does not want immigration. The Hungarian people want to decide for themselves who they live with and has stated this on several occasions. This is what irritates certain Brussels politicians”, the State Secretary said.

 “Hungary was right to choose the direct route and openly reject the mandatory resettlement quota, because meanwhile 20 out of the EU’s 28 member states may have accepted the quota, but did not implement it.

Only 25 percent of the required numbers were successfully resettled, and therefore the system of mandatory quotas has failed”, he declared.

“We do not want to undertake the burden of the parallel societies that go hand-in-hand with immigration. Hungary is not taking part in this, and this is precisely why it has become the target of political attacks”, Mr. Magyar said.

“It is obvious that the timing of the procedure is also no accident, in view of the fact that there will be elections in Hungary in a few months’ time”, he added.

In reply to a question, the State Secretary said the talks with the EP rapporteur were decidedly amicable, but surprisingly,

the MEP had no knowledge of certain pieces of basic information, in view of which her Hungarian negotiating partners offered Ms. Sargentini their assistance.

“Otherwise, we are not expecting much from the negotiations, because the EP’s approach is clearly biased”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Parliamentary State Secretary said.

featured image: Levente Magyar, source: kormany.hu

Socialists, DK agree not to challenge one another in individual constituencies

The opposition Socialist Party and the Democratic Coalition (DK) have agreed on coordinated nominations in all the 106 individual constituencies during the 2018 general elections, the two parties’ leaders announced in Budapest on Wednesday.

Socialist leader Gyula Molnár said his party would field a candidate in 60 constituencies and DK in 46. He confirmed that the Socialists’ PM candidate would be Gergely Karácsony, co-leader of the Párbeszéd party.

DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány said his party had pursued a “predictable, reliable and clear” policy over the past few months. He confirmed that DK would enter a separate party list for the election, one that would be topped by him.

DK does not support any PM candidate featuring on another party’s list, Gyurcsány said.

Both leaders said they wished all democratic opposition parties to agree on a single candidate in each constituency. Molnár said the Socialists are open to cooperating with other democratic partners, too.

The Socialist leader said the two parties’ agreement on dividing the constituencies was based on the results of recent polls.

“I think we have concluded a correct and fair deal,” he said.

In response to a question, Molnár said he saw no reason for opening towards Jobbik and no chance for any cooperation or coordination with it.

Asked why DK rejected a joint list with the Socialists, Gyurcsány said that “an independent list will probably bring more votes than a joint one.”

“The democratic alternative to [Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán is not a single-coloured alternative,” he added.

Asked if he is still nurturing prime ministerial ambitions, Gyurcsány said, “that situation might still arise, I’m still very young, in a good shape. I would not like to rid the right wing of the risk of facing me as a challenger.”

featured image: MTI

Fidesz board to name individual candidates on January 16

The national board of ruling Fidesz will decide on its individual candidates for the upcoming general election on January 16, House Speaker László Kövér told commercial Inforádió on Tuesday evening.

Kövér added, however, that the list “will not be too much of a surprise”. He said that his party would mostly run its current deputies, with “very few” changes.

Commenting on parliament, Kövér said “there is no point in its session long overlapping with the campaign”, and suggested that the national assembly should not meet after the election campaign starts.

He said that parliament’s debates are “less and less professional”.

He argued that the opposition parties are “using parliament as a stage for performances” merely to attract public attention. He also added that he thought parties of the left all over Europe are “nearing collapse”.

featured image: MTI

Fidesz: Left wing hurt ethnic Hungarians 13 years ago, DK revives ‘hate campaign’

An official of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party said on Tuesday that the left wing had “unforgivably” hurt ethnic Hungarians in the referendum on dual citizenship 13 years ago, and now the Democratic Coalition (DK) was again waging a “hate campaign” against them.

Balázs Hidvéghi, Fidesz’s communications chief, said in a statement that Ferenc Gyurcsány, the former Socialist prime minister who now leads DK, had turned Hungarians against Hungarians, and for that reason the referendum on whether to allow dual citizenship for ethnic Hungarians living beyond the border held in December 2004 had failed.

“Thirteen years after that shameful day, we can say that thanks to the Fidesz alliance with the Christian Democrats, belief in the Hungarian nation and the number of our citizens has grown.

One million Hungarians abroad have once again legally become a part of the Hungarian nation … we are a million stronger,” the statement said.

At the same time, the Hungarian left wing has not changed at all, Hidvéghi said. “Gyurcsány’s lot have once again launched a hate campaign against Hungarians beyond the border, and they want to allow in masses of migrants…” he said.

The statement added that radical nationalist Jobbik would “stoop to anything for money and power” and betray ethnic Hungarians. Jobbik leader

Gábor Vona is now seeking favours from the left wing and Jobbik politicians are hurting Hungarians of the Carpathian Basin, it added.

Gyurcsány has argued that ethnic Hungarians who are not resident in Hungary should not have the right to vote in Hungarian general elections. A Fidesz-sponsored law allows Hungarian citizens residing beyond the borders to vote for party lists in the general election.

featured image: MTI

Parliament committee rejects opposition proposal to change election law

Daily News Hungary

Parliament’s judicial committee on Monday refused to put on the national assembly’s agenda a proposal which the proponent opposition parties said would make Hungary’s electoral system “fair, transparent and proportionate”.

Socialist group leader Bertalan Tóth said that the proposal, backed also by LMP, the Liberals, the Dialogue and Együtt parties, would have lowered the parliamentary threshold for political parties from 5 percent to “better reflect the will of voters” and would also have facilitated removing “fake parties” — organisations entering the race with the sole purpose of getting the state subsidy for political parties running in the election.

The proposed system would eliminate the “discriminatory” practice of making it technically easier for ethnic Hungarians to cast their ballot than for non-ethnic Hungarians living in other countries,

Tóth said, adding, however, that the proposal did not seek to strip people with dual citizenship of their Hungarian nationality.

Tóth voiced criticism of the current electoral system, saying it had helped ruling Fidesz to win an almost two-thirds majority with as little as 40 percent of the votes in the last election.

He said it was “appalling” that deputies of Fidesz had referred to that system as “appropriate, proportionate, and democratic” in the committee debate. He also said the committee’s rejection of the proposal indicated Fidesz’s “lack of courage” to compete in a fairer electoral regime.

Farmers vote for rural support in agriculture chamber election

agriculture farm land

Hungarian farmers clearly voted for the successes of recent years, solidarity, and consistent and continued rural support in the election of county delegates for the National Agriculture Chamber (NAK), the farm ministry said on Saturday.

Preliminary results of Friday’s election indicate that the government-backed farmers’ association Magosz won with 88 percent of the vote, while MOSZ, the association backed by the leftist parties, suffered a serious defeat, the ministry said in a statement.

Magosz’s convincing victory proves the organisation has put together an effective and professional system of interest representation over the past five years, the ministry said. This system has been successful in representing the interests of farmers and is capable of working together with various players in Hungary’s agriculture sector, including the ministry, the statement added.

The ministry said that its collaboration with the agriculture chamber and Magosz had contributed greatly to Hungary having one of the fastest-growing agriculture sectors in the European Union.

Productivity and employment in the sector are on the rise, it added.

The National Chamber Election Committee is expected to announce the official results of the election on Monday.

The inaugural county delegate assemblies are scheduled to be held between November 23 and 25, when the county delegates will elect the national delegates and county officials.

Parliament to vote on cancelling mandatory chimney inspection for family homes

Hungary’s parliament will convene on five days during the upcoming two-week session, and lawmakers on Tuesday are likely to vote in support of cancelling the mandatory annual chimney inspection for households despite President János Áder recently returning the related law to parliament.

Members of government will field questions from lawmakers on Monday afternoon, the first sitting of the session.

On Tuesday, MPs will vote on the cancellation of mandatory annual chimney inspection which Áder has returned for reconsideration, stating that making inspections on a voluntary basis could significantly increase the number of life-threatening cases.

Lawmakers will also vote on amendment proposals by the government to improve competitiveness and changes that will affect the handling of migration.

After the votes, a ruling Fidesz proposal to make election campaign costs more transparent will be debated.

On Thursday, debates are scheduled on ten proposals, including a general debate on a new tax law.

Lawmakers on Friday will mark November 3 as the day for the celebration of Hungarian science and they are scheduled to debate six proposals, including a general debate on expanding support for youth and amendments affecting the Hungarian Art Academy and the National Land Fund.

The last sitting of the upcoming two weeks will be held on Monday, when lawmakers will discuss in four hours a green opposition LMP initiative on compensating people who suffered losses as a result of mortgages taken out in foreign currencies.

Photo: MTI

Fidesz proposes amendment to law on campaign financing

Parties receiving less than 0.5 percent of the votes cast on party lists in the general election should be obliged to repay the state funding provided for their campaign, ruling Fidesz party group leader Gergely Gulyás said on Tuesday.

Members of the “main governing bodies” of the parties concerned should be liable for repaying these amounts from their own assets, Gulyás said about his party’s proposed amendment to the law on campaign financing he had co-authored with lawmaker Róbert Répássy.

Under the effective law, individual candidates failing to canvas 2 percent of votes have to pay back the 1 million forint (EUR 3,231) received for their campaign,

Gulyás told a press conference. He noted that the opposition parties had repeatedly criticised the law for not specifying any such hurdle for party lists, he said.

As the law on campaign financing can only be amended by at least two thirds of votes, the governing parties would need some votes from the ranks of the opposition, too, he said.

“Should the opposition refuse the proposal, it will be liable for all abuses of campaign financing,” Gulyás said.

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Photo: MTI

PM Orbán and Hungarian FM congratulates ÖVP on winning Austrian elections – UPDATE

Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, has congratulated the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and its leader, Sebastian Kurz, on winning the Austrian election on Sunday.

Szijjártó spoke on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

The minister praised the winning party as one which “has cooperated with Hungary on several important issues, including migration.”

“Sebastian Kurz has always spoken in clear terms and never been shackled by political correctness or hypocrisy”,

he said, and called for “politicians speaking clearly and in a straightforward manner about the gravest problems of Europe’s people”.

Answering a question, Szijjártó said the Visegrad countries did not see a necessity to enlarge the four-strong group, but they would stay in close cooperation with Austria.

Orbán congratulates Kurz on winning Austria election

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has sent a letter of congratulations to Sebastian Kurz, the leader of the Austria People’s Party (ÖVP), on winning Sunday’s election.
“The outcome [of the ballot] yesterday clearly showed that the majority of Austrians cast their vote to support a policy that endorses values and guarantees security and stability,” Orbán wrote in his letter. “I trust that once the new government is formed, we will be able to strengthen cooperation between our countries as close allies along the lines of Christian-conservative values you have consistently represented.”
Orbán wished Kurz much success for the upcoming coalition talks.

Photo: MTI/EPA/Christian Bruna

LMP motions for lowering voting age to 16

Daily News Hungary

The opposition LMP will submit an amendment to the constitution on lowering the voting age from 18 years to 16, the party’s spokesman said on Wednesday. 

Under the proposed legislation, Hungarians aged 16 could cast their ballots first in the municipal elections in 2019 and then in the European Parliamentary elections set for the same year, Máté Kanász-Nagy told a press conference.

LMP would, however, maintain the provision that sets 18 years as the age limit for becoming a candidate to run in an election, he said.

The spokesman cited the example of Austria and Scotland where the law ensures voting under the age of 18. He added that laws in Malta and Estonia ensure this right in local elections.

Klaudia Apostol, the co-chair of LMP’s youth arm, said

the amendment aimed to inspire young Hungarians to express their opinion about the country’s public affairs.

Orbán congratulates CDU, CSU leaders on winning German parliamentary elections

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sent his congratulations to party leaders Angela Merkel of CDU and Horst Seehofer of CSU in a letter on Monday on winning the German parliamentary elections, Orban’s press chief said.

In his letter to Merkel, Orbán said that the election results show the European citizen’s commitment towards a policy built on conservative values which can ensure safety and economic stability, Bertalan Havasi said.

“I trust we can cooperate along these common values to further develop Hungarian-German relations

and to resolve the challenges facing our continent”, Havasi cited Orbán as saying in his letter.

In his congratulatory letter to Horst Seehofer, the minister president of the federal state of Bavaria, Orbán thanked him for the “excellent cooperation of the past years” and said that he was looking forward to further strengthening German-Hungarian and Bavarian-Hungarian ties.

“I wish you success in bringing the right wing together along our shared principles,” Havasi cited the letter as saying.

The centre-right coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union won 33 percent of the votes at the German parliamentary elections on Sunday.

As we wrote before, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said, Hungary shows “exceptional solidarity” to Germany since Hungarian taxpayers pay to protect the Hungarian borders, thereby protecting Germany against illegal immigration, in connection with an interview Chancellor Angela Merkel gave to two German newspapers.

Photo: MTI/AP/Michael Sohn

Jobbik pledges to introduce electronic voting from 2022

The opposition Jobbik party plans to introduce electronic voting from 2022 if it wins next year’s election, party leader Gábor Vona said on Monday.

Emigration is one of the most serious problems that Hungary currently faces and its consequences include the demographic crisis as well as tensions in the social security system and the labour market, he told a press conference. A message needs to be sent to the hundreds of thousands who have left Hungary to make them aware that “we rely on them and have not forgotten about them”, he added.

Vona criticised the government for its failure to offer the opportunity of voting by mail to everyone affected, only to ethnic Hungarians living abroad. He said the government’s opposition to voting by mail must be motivated by party policy interests.

Vona asked Hungarians living abroad to go to Hungary’s embassies and consulates and cast their votes next year.

He promised the introduction of electronic voting by 2022 if his party comes to power next year. He cited the example of Estonia which has already taken that step.

Asked about security concerns, Vona said he was certain that secrecy could be maintained and that electronic voting would greatly simplify the voting procedure.

As we wrote before, Jobbik party would prohibit anyone from being elected prime minister for more than eight years in Hungary, Vona said.

A year ago, representatives of Jobbik and the green opposition LMP met to discuss potential amendments to Hungary’s election system.

Photo: MTI

Jobbik calls on parties to back probe into Fidesz’s 2010 campaign spending

Daily News Hungary

Opposition Jobbik party has called on both the ruling and opposition parties to support setting up a parliamentary committee to look into ruling Fidesz’s spending during the 2010 election campaign.

Fidesz’s “constant sidestepping” of this question indicates that the party “committed electoral fraud” in 2010 and is “implementing not an illiberal but an illegitimate” system of government, Jobbik spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki told a press conference on Tuesday.

Mirkóczki called on Fidesz not to stand in the way of an investigation into the matter.

The spokesman was also asked about the situation of Jobbik MP Gergely Kulcsár, who had spit on the “Shoes on the riverbank” memorial honouring the memory of Holocaust victims killed on the banks of the Danube, in light of a recent interview Jobbik leader Gábor Vona gave to commercial television ATV in which he said he was ready to apologise to Hungary’s Jewish and Roma communities for “bad sentences” he and members of his party had said about them in the past. Mirkoczki said the party had taken “proportionate disciplinary action” against Kulcsar.

The spokesman said he himself would be willing to apologise if he ever misspoke or offended anyone.

Asked about whether he thought there was such a thing as “Gypsy crime” in Hungary, Mirkóczki said it was “undeniable” that there were certain criminal acts that were mostly perpetrated by Roma people. He said he did not insist on calling this phenomenon “Gypsy crime”, adding, however, that he had an interest in its elimination.

Asked about billboards advertising Jobbik’s bid to equalise wages throughout the European Union, Mirkoczki said his party had ceased all of its billboard campaigns as of July 15. The billboards promoting the wage union campaign that have shown up on Jobbik’s former advertising spaces were not ordered by the party but rather “by someone who fully agrees with the initiative”, Mirkóczki insisted. Asked if the campaign could be funded by media magnate Lajos Simicska, Mirkóczki said the individual behind the campaign could be “anyone out of 8 million people”.

Fidesz responded by saying that Jobbik was becoming “more and more desperate” to “divert attention from the Simicska-Jobbik corruption” and the party’s “crisis”. Vona “sold his party by the kilo and made it the puppet of a billionaire for power and money”, Fidesz said in a statement.

As we wrote last week, Jobbik party has suggested that a parliamentary committee should be set up to look into the ruling Fidesz party’s spending during the campaign ahead of the 2010 election.

Jobbik urges probe into Fidesz’s 2010 campaign spending

Daily News Hungary

The opposition Jobbik party has suggested that a parliamentary committee should be set up to look into the ruling Fidesz party’s spending during the campaign ahead of the 2010 election.

Jobbik’s group leader János Volner told a press conference on Wednesday that commercial broadcaster Hir TV had not invoiced Fidesz for any of its advertisements in the campaign, which “raises suspicion of illegal party financing and tax fraud”.

Volner insisted that the committee should reveal “how much (financial) support Fidesz had received”, from what sources, and if the alleged financing had an influence on the outcome of the election.

Fidesz said in reaction that Jobbik had become a “puppet in the hands of billionaire Lajos Simicska”, who has “purchased the party and provides covert financing”. In a statement the ruling party insisted that Simicska had provided Jobbik with “unrealistically cheap” advertising and his companies “publish Jobbik’s messages without the logo of the party”.

Fidesz also insisted that it had observed the law in all its election campaigns, adding that the State Audit Office has cleared all their accounts.