LMP

Here is what PM Orbán did not talk about in his State of the Nation speech

Viktor Orbán State of the Nation

Viktor Orbán has “failed to address the cardinal question: why the accomplice of a paedophile was granted a presidential pardon,” the Democratic Coalition (DK) said in a statement issued after the prime minister delivered his annual state of the nation address on Saturday.

“The prime minister would not provide an answer, he refuses to take responsibility and will not apologise to the victims,” DK said.

Jobbik-Conservatives said in a statement it was “obvious that Hungary is in the greatest political scandal and moral crisis of the past 30 years” and Orbán should have taken responsibility for “the disgrace of the pardon case”.

The Socialist Party said Orbán had “made it clear the scandal was resolved” with the resignation of the president and of the former justice minister, while “fleeing responsibility”.

The radical nationalist Mi Hazank Movement said Orbán’s speech “depicted an idyllic Hungary that is very far from reality”. “The prime minister will not take any personal responsibility for the pardon scandal that has shaken the whole country,” the party added.

Parbeszed-Greens said they regretted that “no honest reflection took place” in Orbán’s speech. “The prime minister should have made amends for this disgusting paedophile whitewashing”. In addition to President Katalin Novák, former Justice Minister Judit Varga and Reformed Bishop Zoltan Balog “he should have admitted that he is politically responsible” for the scandal, they added.

LMP said “we still do not know why Endre K. has been granted a pardon.”

The Momentum Movement said the prime minister had “not addressed the most important questions”.

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Opposition party urges boosting child protection in Hungary

baby cry children

The opposition LMP party has submitted a draft resolution to parliament aimed at reinforcing Hungary’s child protection and welfare system.

Mate Kanász-Nagy, LMP’s deputy group leader said “the current scandal shows the need for serious government intervention” adding that the proposed measures would “ensure children’s right to welfare, security, a safe environment and education.”

The proposed measures include mandatory psychological screening for jobs involving work with minors, including foster parents. Under the proposals, both child-care institutions could benefit from increased normative subsidies and their employees from a payrise.

LMP would double the family benefit, which has not been raised since 2008, and index it with the rate of inflation each year, Kanász-Nagy said.

He also urged stricter punishment for “people approaching minors in their care with the intent of abuse or make statements to that effect.”

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Hungarian President will resign after paedophilia scandal?

novák

The opposition LMP has called on President Katalin Novák to revoke presidential clemency granted to a man convicted for coercing victims of paedophilia to withdraw testimonies.

LMP spokeswoman Anna Süveg told a press conference on Monday that Novák had pardoned a man who used his position as the deputy director of a children’s home in Bicske, in central Hungary, to blackmail residents to withdraw their testimony against the “paedophile director”.

Süveg called the decision “despicable”, noting that Novák had also pardoned György Budaházy, “who had been convicted on terrorism charges”.

LMP is requesting access to the documentation leading to the decision, and calling on Novák to address the issue publicly. “Sentencing the perpetrators is something we owe the victims,” she said, adding that Novák was abusing the right to grant pardons, “a special and exclusive right of the country’s president”.

Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) is launching an impeachment procedure against Novák over the issue. Parliamentary group spokeswoman Olga Kálmán said on Monday that “someone pardoning an accessory to paedophilia … is not worthy to serve as Hungary’s president.”

The opposition Párbeszéd party proposed that Novák provide reasons for her decisions related to the pardon and sign a related document, which should be published in the official Hungarian Gazette.

The president’s decision to release the accomplice of a paedophile criminal was “shameful”, Bence Tordai, the party’s group leader, told an online press briefing on Monday.

He said a part of Novák’s job was to represent the unity of the nation and its moral dimension, and she had abused her position and power, adding that she had lost the trust of the people and “can no longer be president of the republic of Hungary”.

Government not to be allowed to build everywhere what they want?

construction

The National Election Committee (NVB) has approved a referendum bid submitted by opposition LMP which aims to scrap provisions in the Hungarian law on construction which allow priority investments to be fast-tracked, the party’s deputy group leader said on Thursday.

LMP, which unsuccessfully launched the referendum bid last summer, had turned to the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, which overruled the NVB’s decision to reject the bid.

Antal Csárdi told a press conference that in principle all obstacles to holding a referendum on the issue had been removed, and additional rights given to companies making priority investments would be struck down.

If no one appeals the decision within the next two weeks, LMP will start gathering signatures at the end of February, he said. “If all goes to plan”, the referendum could be held in the autumn, Csárdi said.

The referendum aims to ensure that investments “that could ruin the residential environment and make everyday life impossible” would not be made without consulting locals, he said.

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Opposition unity in Budapest in grave danger: Orbán’s Fidesz will win back Budapest?

Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony domestic violence social issue

The opposition LMP party “wants to show that there could be an alternative political proposal to lead Budapest . the party seeks a candidate [for Budapest mayor] who is not associated with their political affiliation,” LMP co-chairman Péter Ungár said at his party’s congress on Saturday.

LMP’s candidate would “represent the 60 percent of Budapest residents using public transport” in the long run, and work “to develop rather than shrink services”, Ungár said.

Budapest needs parks and social housing “rather than skyscrapers and luxury homes”, he said, adding that LMP would “not make concessions” on that subject.

Ungár declined to name a candidate saying that LMP was “not in search of a coat to complete a button”, adding that “there is joy in anticipation”.

Slamming Gergely Karácsony, the incumbent, opposition mayor of Budapest, Ungár suggested Karácsony’s priority was “to pose as [PM] Viktor Orban’s victim on Facebook”.

Ungár also criticised the other opposition parties in Budapest for “pretending to support cooperation whereas none of them are really eager that it should happen”.

Ungár insisted that political discourse within the opposition was “about persons rather than content”. He said “every election or referendum is about Viktor Orbán, while the opposition sees Ferenc Gyurcsány as the cause of all their problems or the solution to everything and Karácsony as the only hope”.

Ungár said his party was the only opposition party “that can define itself”. LMP is Hungary’s only green party, for which “the question if Lake Balaton should be surrounded by concrete” is a greater priority than “whether there is a police cordon around the prime minister’s office”.

“LMP is familiar with the dangers of GMO,” he said, adding that his party would “fight against battery plants in Hungary to the last minute.”

Ungár added, however, that “the EU is not the source of all good things and markets are not omnipotent”.

Ungár said LMP was the “only party that has drawn conclusions from the dramatic defeat of the 2022 election” and offered a “completely different alternative to the unnerving spiritual civil war raging in Hungarian politics”.

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LMP demands immediate payment increase to foster parents

baby cry children

Opposition LMP calls for immediately raising the pay of foster parents and adjusting their allowances to the rate of inflation, the party’s spokesperson for welfare and family policy said on Sunday.

“There is a shortage of foster parents in the Hungarian system, totaling only 5,400 according to Central Statistical Office figures, two-thirds of whom are based in towns and villages with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. And there are 400 foster parents who care for six children,” Krisztina Hohn told a press conference.

Foster parents are entitled to receive a basic pay and allowance of 54,000 forints (EUR 142) per child in a normal case. If they care for a child with special needs, they receive 62,000 forints per month, she said.

The pay foster parents receive is extremely low despite a recent increase of 25 percent, Hohn said, arguing that the rate had not kept pace with inflation.

“Poverty now also affects children raised by foster parents in many places, which is unacceptable because the state must provide for those children,” said Hohn.

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Hungarian opposition party submits referendum question concerning construction rules

Government sends home all foreign construction companies from Hungary

Opposition LMP has submitted another referendum question in an effort to prevent the government from assigning certain construction project a status of strategic importance, LMP deputy group leader Antal Csárdi told a press conference on Friday.

Last year, the National Election Committee thwarted a referendum proposal submitted by LMP, which was aimed at scrapping a law under which key government projects could be expedited. The party appealed against the committee decision to the supreme court, which decided in LMP’s favour and scrapped the committee ruling.

Ruling Fidesz then scrapped the contested law, but “packed practically all its stipulations” into another bill aimed to change the construction law, Csárdi said, adding that his party’s aim was to remove all proposed stipulations aimed to expedite such government projects.

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Opposition: Hungarian government again pointing fingers at Brussels

gulyás Strong NATO in Hungary's interest oil transit

The opposition LMP has called on the government to raise the wages of teachers and other public education employees.

The party’s deputy group leader, Máté Kanász-Nagy, said that Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, “spread uncertainty and pointed the finger at Brussels again” when he told commercial media outlet atv.hu at the end of last week that the government “will do everything it can” to ensure a 32 percent wage hike, but that it depended on “technical approval” by the European Commission.

The wage hike depends only on the government’s will, Kanász-Nagy told a press conference on Wednesday.

“It looks like the cabinet is looking for ways to back out of the wage hike”, despite the interior ministry’s statement that teachers would receive a 32 percent raise from 1 January, he said.

He called on the government to clarify whether teachers’ wages will rise, and by how much.

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Building insulation and energy upgrade scheme in Hungary?

Home Insulation Development Energy

Opposition LMP is submitting to parliament a draft resolution calling for the launch of a complex building insulation and energy upgrade scheme, the party’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The programme would have an annual budget of 600 billion forints (EUR 1.6bn), Anna Süveg told an online press conference, adding that it would be “one of the easiest ways” of reducing Hungary’s energy consumption, dependence on foreign energy, air pollution, CO2 emissions and “energy poverty”.

Süveg said buildings accounted for close to 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, and 70-80 percent of homes did not meet modern technical and thermal engineering standards.

She said spending 600 billion forints in government and European Union funding on the project each year would be enough to upgrade some 100,000 homes. Under the scheme, households would be able to bid for subsidised loans of up to 10 million forints to cover the energy upgrades, she said.

Homes that are in a poor condition, Süveg said, would be required to undergo deep energy renovations with a view to reducing their energy consumption by at least 50 percent. Those who could not afford the upgrades would receive higher subsidies, she added.

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Hungarian opposition calls on govt to raise teachers’ wages from Jan 1

teacher

Opposition LMP has called on the government to raise the wages of teachers to HUF 700,000 (EUR 1,800) from Jan 1 “as promised by the head of the Prime Minister’s Office”.

Antal Csárdi told a press conference on Wednesday that there was “nothing left to wait for” now that the European Commission has released funding for Hungary.

He said his party had submitted a question to the interior minister querying whether teachers would receive a wage hike given the extraordinary restructuring of funds or if the budget would be amended in parliament’s spring session. He added that LMP also wanted to know when the amendment would enter into effect.

Csárdi said the 10 percent pay rise teachers are set to receive from January would still mean that their real wages would decline.

“The ball is now in the government’s court,” he said, noting that it had to raise teachers’ wages which would later be covered by the EU.

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LMP: Orbán cabinet should do more to entice young people home

travel-tourism-luggage-moving

Hungary will not see a “demographic turnaround” unless young people working abroad are offered attractive opportunities at home, the deputy group leader of opposition LMP told an online press briefing on Monday.

Máté Kanász-Nagy called the government’s family policy a “failure”, and insisted that the emigration of young people was one of the country’s gravest challenges. In the past decade some 400,000-500,000 young people left Hungary for other countries in western Europe in the hope of leading a better life, he said.

Rather than building a knowledge-based society, the government has worked to create “an entire economy to serve multinationals … turning Hungary into an assembly plant”.

The jobs offered in that system involve work of little value-added and meager wages, which “is not attractive to young people”, Kanász-Nagy said. Citing survey results, he said “every other Hungarian aged 16-24 is mulling a future in another country”.

Concerning the government’s new offices set up to help young people returning from abroad, LMP politician said the system was a “PR trick”, insisting that the offices could not provide any more help than basic advice in Hungarian cities rather in other countries.

Hungarian opposition: Hungary GMO-free status at risk

Hungary’s GMO-free status continues to be at risk despite a recent vote in the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council rejecting draft legislation which would exempt new genomic techniques (NGTs) from strict GMO regulations, the co-leader of green opposition LMP said on Thursday.

The proposal backed by chemical industry lobbyists failed in a first round of voting on Monday, Erzsébet Schmuck told an online press briefing. “But that lobby is aggressively pushing its agenda and wants to have another round of voting held on the exemption before Christmas, and it has found several politicians as allies in those efforts,” she said.

If passed with a qualified majority, the legislation would scrap the labelling requirement of products, Schmuck said. As a result, farmers, traders and consumers would no longer be able to choose GMO-free products, she said. “Control over seed production would also end up in the hands of agribusiness players, which would seriously jeopardise the autonomy of farmers and agricultural biodiversity,” Schmuck said.

She called on all Hungarian MEPs and decision-makers to stand up for maintaining a strict and comprehensive GMO regulation, regardless of their party affiliation.

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LMP asks president not to sign construction act

Opposition LMP has asked President Katalin Novák not to sign the law on construction approved on Tuesday by the ruling parties in parliament, the party’s national board leader said.

Örs Tetlák told an online press conference today that LMP is also initiating a constitutional review of the law.

Tetlak said LMP had previously initiated a referendum against the law on priority investments which the National Election Committee rejected but a recent decision by the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, approved.

However, the ruling parties have amended sections of the law affected by the referendum and transferred them to the law on construction, he said. He added that the ruling parties had “used an embarrassing and obvious trick” with this move.

Government abuses ‘priority investment’ legal category? – UPDATED

Hungarian parliament

The introduction of a legal category for priority investment in the national economy has been harmful because the government has been abusing it, an opposition LMP national board member said on Friday.

Mária Szendefy told a press conference that the legal regulation enabling projects to be classified as priority investment should be void. In its current form it did not serve the public interest, she said, adding a new law could be introduced to achieve the intended goal.

Szendefy said the supreme court Curia had recently approved LMP’s initiative for an referendum to be held on withdrawing the law introducing the category of priority investment in the national economy. If the constitutional court does not prevent it, the collection of signatures necessary for holding a referendum could be started within weeks, she added.

In her criticism of the law, she cited a tourism development project near Lake Fertő as an example. The government declared it a priority investment in 2018 and even though the “mad plan” could not be fully implemented as a result of financial constraints, the locals could not use the lakeshore for years, “the natural habitat was practically destroyed on an area of nearly sixty hectares”, and many of the iconic hay-roofed huts were destroyed, she said.

It was only recently revealed that the local government office had issued its environmental permit for the original plan, and so it is currently not known what exactly will come out of the project, she added.

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UPDATE: LMP calls for abolition of law on priority investments

Opposition LMP has called for the abolition of the law on priority investments, arguing that the regulation allowed the government to bypass rules when licensing major investments. The Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, recently approved LMP’s referendum initiative on the matter, Mate Kanasz-Nagy, the party’s deputy group leader, told a press briefing on Saturday.

He called the law on priority investments “the law of lawlessness”. It allowed the government to launch big investments anywhere in the country, he said, “ignoring the rules, the interests of the community, as well as local opinions and decisions”.

By scrapping the law, LMP wants to return the right to municipalities to have a say over — or even veto — an investment if they feel it would have an adverse impact on the lives of their residents, Kanasz-Nagy said.

He said LMP believed that people’s opinions and the protection of the natural environment were more important than the interests of big capital.

Hungarian opposition calls for tightening Hungary’s anti-GMO stance

Hungary’s firm stance for GMO-free food products should be further tightened to guarantee food safety, opposition LMP said on Tuesday.

Antal Csárdi, LMP’s deputy group leader, told a press conference that the party is proposing that parliament adopts a declaration on the matter.

Csárdi said several parliamentary groups were divided, with Momentum and Jobbik-Conservatives not voting for an earlier proposal declaring Hungary’s opposition to the EU’s pro-GMO recommendation, which “would allow such produce to flood European markets … by eliminating member states’ right to weigh the decisions individually”.

Momentum’s party family in the EU, Renew Europe, “is neoliberal and extremely pro-market, and a vocal proponent of giving free rein to genetically modified produce”, he said.

LMP is proposing a declaration that would take a stance for a GMO-free Hungary “independent of party affiliations”, Csárdi said. The declaration would clearly oppose new GMO technologies, he said.

Hungarians have a right to know whether their elected representatives take a stance for a GMO-free Hungary, he said.

Meanwhile, the debate has gained new momentum in the EU as “chemical industry players and seed producers are planning to launch a new technology that would prevent consumers from knowing whether the food they buy is genetically modified,” he said.

Here is when Hungary could be climate neutral

Climate neutral Hungary

The opposition LMP is submitting an amendment proposal to parliament to tighten the targets in Hungary’s climate law, as the government’s policy has “failed”, party board member Örs Tetlák said on Tuesday.

Under the proposal, greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 60% by 2030, instead of the currently targeted 40%, Tetlák told a press conference. Energy consumption would be cut by 25% and the ratio of sustainable energy sources would be raised by 40% from 21% by the same year, he said.

That way, Hungary could be climate neutral by 2045 rather than 2050, he said.

Tetlák, the deputy mayor of Érd near Budapest, also called for a government-subsidised programme to insulate homes with a view of cutting utility and energy consumption. With an investment of 600 billion forints (EUR 1.6bn), at least 100,000 households could be insulated a year, he said.

Tetlák called for banning further battery plants and ending the government’s “car-centered policy”. Further, water management should see a fundamental reform and made independent from the government, and large farmlands should be replaced with small family farms using soil-friendly methods, he said.

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Hungarian green parties opposing Samsung investment, Azerbaijani electricity contract

Samsung Göd

The opposition LMP party has called on the government to cancel the multilateral agreement with Azerbaijan on electricity transmission. Meanwhile, the opposition Párbeszéd-Greens has called for the suspension of operations of the Samsung SDI battery plant in Göd, near Budapest, until the plant receives legal permits.

LMP calls on government to cancel Azerbaijan electricity transmission contract

In December 2022, Prime Minister Viktor Orbén signed the agreement regarding the undersea power line with his Georgian and Romanian counterparts and the Azeri president, LMP politician Örs Tetlák noted at a press conference on Friday.

He said it was baffling that the government was counting on Azeri wind energy while blocking wind farms in Hungary, noting that barely 5 percent of Azeri energy was from renewable sources, and there is no guarantee that green energy would be delivered by a country rich in natural gas.

The LMP politician noted that the project was in the planning stage, and based on the 2.3 billion euro EU subsidy for the project, Hungary would receive hundreds of billions of forints to pay for construction, when this money could be spent far more effectively.

Párbeszéd calls for suspension of Samsung battery plant operations

The opposition Párbeszéd-Greens has called for the suspension of operations of the Samsung SDI battery plant in Göd, near Budapest, until the plant receives legal permits. The plant has operated for five years without the proper legal permits, Benedek Jávor, a party adviser, told an online press briefing on Friday. The plant, he added, had been polluting the environment and exceeding harmful emission limits, and the authorities had fined the company. Also, he said Samsung SDI failed to operate a proper network of monitoring wells for the assessment of underground water pollution and noise levels produced by the factory exceeded acceptable limits.

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Hungarian opposition calls on govt to withdraw decree exempting polluters

iváncsa battery factory sk

Opposition LMP has urged the government to withdraw its decree exempting polluting companies from fully adhering to environmental protection rules, insisting that certain exemptions could still apply to battery plants.

László Lóránt Keresztes, chairman of parliament’s sustainable development committee, told a press conference that the government claim that battery plants and other dangerous manufacturers operating in Hungary must comply with strict environmental rules was “deceitful”.

According to the government decree, any polluter can be exempted from the legal consequences of pollution by concluding a contract, LMP politician said, adding that even though the government promised to change the decree to exclude battery plants from waivers, it had not done so.

Also the decree, he said, may apply in the case of ongoing legal disputes and fines.

The LMP politician said that as long as the government decree was in force, any company could escape being fined, and the party demanded the decree’s withdrawal.

Government decree deathblow to Hungarian environmental safeguards?

Environmental catastrophe River Sajó Slovakia Hungary

Opposition LMP has said it is turning to the Constitutional Court with a request for annulment of a government decree that “has dealt a devastating blow to Hungarian environmental protections”, insisting that companies that violate environmental standards but promise rectify it a contract will be spared punitive action by the authorities.

LMP also demands the resignation of Csaba Lantos, the energy minister, who “has proved his incompetence by helping to scrap environmental protections”, József Gál, the party’s spokesperson told a press conference on Friday.

The (LMP) chairman of parliament’s sustainable development committee is initiating a committee meeting next week and has asked Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, and Lantos, to brief the committee.

Also, LMP will hold a candlelight vigil in front of the ministry next week, he said. He said that whereas the government had insisted the decree would only apply to troubled steelmaker Dunaferr, in effect it would scrap the institutional system of the country’s environmental safeguards. Meanwhile, Gál said LMP wanted licensing procedures for battery plants to be tightened.

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