referendum

No Chinese university campus in Budapest? Green light given to referendum

fudan-university smapse

Hungarians will soon be given a chance to express their views on the government’s performance in a referendum, an opposition Socialist Party official said on Thursday, referring to the election committee’s recent approval of two referendum questions submitted by the opposition.

The National Election Committee (NVB) on Monday certified two out of five referendum questions submitted by Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony. If the opposition gathers enough supporting signatures, a referendum could be held on the issue of

whether to prevent property from being transferred to China’s Fudan University and on extending the eligibility period for jobless benefits.

Citing data from the Central Statistical Office, Imre Komjáthi, the Socialist Party’s deputy chairman, told an online press briefing that some 93,000 Hungarians had been out of work for 14 and a half months, noting that the jobseekers’ allowance expires after three months.

The number of people who have been without a job for over a year has increased by 20 percent compared with last August,

he added.

Komjáthi noted that his party called on the government multiple times to increase the jobless benefit to at least 100,000 forints (EUR 287) and extend its period of eligibility to nine months.

The people will make it clear in the referendum that they do not want China’s Fudan University to have a campus in Budapest and that they want the jobseekers’ allowance to be guaranteed for a period of nine months, Komjáthi said.

Hungary opposition Fudan
Read alsoOpposition PM candidate wants to cancel the Fudan project!

Climate change: “the only way Fidesz will act is if we, the people force them to”

The opposition LMP is turning to the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, over the election committee’s rejection of its referendum question on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the party’s co-leader said on Friday.
 
Last month, the National Election Committee (NVB) rejected LMP’s referendum initiative on whether greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced by 65 percent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, citing incompatible timeframes regarding the legislative agenda and the timeframe included in the question.
 
 
Erzsébet Schmuck told an online press conference that Hungary needed to act immediately on the issue of climate change, insisting that “the only way [ruling] Fidesz will act is if we, the people force them to”. She criticised the NVB for rejecting her party’s referendum bid “for bogus reasons”.

 Schmuck cited a United Nations report published this week in which the organisation sounds a
“code red for humanity”,
warning of worsening global warming. According to the report, world governments need to act immediately on climate change or they will never get another chance, she said.

She said the Hungarian government’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 was “inadequate”. Citing scientific studies, she said the European Union, including Hungary, needed to reduce its emissions by 65 percent this decade in order to avert a climate disaster.
“Though this is a serious challenge, there are no other options,”
Schmuck said. “Either we take these steps or risk the survival of our civilisation.”

Schmuck said the Hungarian people had a right to express their opinion on such an important issue. If the Kuria backs the bid, the people will get to have their say in a referendum, and if it doesn’t, they will have the chance to express their views in the general election next spring, she said.
 

Survey: third of Hungarians think homosexual content changes sexual orientation

lgbtq

A survey carried out by Publicus Institute says that the third of Hungarians finds it possible that someone becomes homosexual after seeing LGBTQ content.

Hungary’s new “paedophile law”, aka “homosexual law”, is still an issue that resurfaces every couple of days in the media. After the passing of the bill caused outrage both in the country and on an international level, the Hungarian government decided to organise a referendum with which citizens can also express their opinion and concerns. Nevertheless, the law entered into effect, which now means that any content depicting homosexuality is banned from schools and kindergartens to protect children under the age of 18.

As DNH recently reported, the law completely divided Hungarian society. Now, a new survey carried out by the Publicus Institute by the commission of Népszava states the same.

The public survey measuring the voters’ opinion at the end of July shows that

42% of Hungarians think that LBGTQ communities lead their propaganda of sexual orientation different from the majority.

This propaganda presented in schools and kindergartens poses a real risk to children.

Almost the third of the people participating think that someone can become homosexual after being exposed to this kind of content.

Apart from the Hungarians’ perception of homosexuality, the survey also investigated how the people see Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s initiative for a referendum concerning the issue.

The survey also shows that a higher percentage of oppositional voices was aware of this referendum (90%), as opposed to 75% of pro-government voters.

55% of voters think that the referendum is genuinely about the protection of children, while

the majority (87%) of the opposition sees it otherwise, as a simple political action, part of the government’s campaign before the elections next year.

Telex.hu writes that 78% of pro-government voters but only 27% of the opposition would participate in the referendum.

After it became clear that the government would not get rid of or would not modify the new law, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony came up with his own initiative for a referendum investigating “how to protect Hungary’s future from the Orbán government’s amok”. He prepared five questions, including the new campus of the Chinese Fudan University planned to be built in Budapest, or the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and whether Hungary should join.

The question of the university is quite interesting.

Over half of those participating in the survey (58%) are rather against establishing the Chinese campus in the Hungarian capital. Even the third of Fidesz supporters are on the same page.

Hungary lgbtq
Read alsoGovernment decree: LGBTQ content can only be sold separate and in closed packages!

Opposition PM candidate wants to cancel the Fudan project!

Hungary opposition Fudan

Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest who is also vying to become Hungary’s next prime minister, wants to hold a referendum “on behalf of the honest majority”, an opposition Socialist Party official said on Sunday.

Imre Komjáthi, the party’s deputy chairman, told an online press briefing that a “domineering minority” had held power in Hungary for the past 12 years, and that the Socialists were representatives of “the honest majority”.

He said Karácsony’s bid to hold a popular vote was all about seeking solutions to life’s real problems.

The referendum’s questions cover the issue of whether to prevent property from being transferred to China’s Fudan University and Hungary’s motorways from being sold off.

Also, it seeks to ask citizens whether

Hungary should join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office

and whether all Hungarian residents over the age of 60 should be entitled to a coronavirus antibody test free of charge. Further, the referendum asks whether jobless benefits should be extended to nine months from the current three.

EU not to give Hungary money as long as PM Orbán is in power?

Pintér Orbán

The recently announced referendum on Hungary’s child protection law serves to deflect from the fact that the European Union will not send “a single cent” of funding to Hungary “as long as its prime minister is called Viktor Orbán”, the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said.

By rejecting the Hungarian government’s reconstruction plan on Tuesday, the EU had “turned off the money taps”, DK’s MEP Klára Dobrev told a press conference on Wednesday. Other forms of funding could go the same way, as they are subject to the same regulations, she said.

Dobrev insisted that the EU was acting “to protect Hungarians”

and said that “another government and regime are needed to ensure that the funds will end up with Hungarian SMEs, farmers, civil organisations, and local governments.”

According to Dobrev, the prime minister is “acting in despair” and seeks to “cover up reality with pseudo-questions”.

Orbán has initiated a referendum “concerning non-existent problems and non-existent enemies just to avoid having to talk about substantive issues,”

Dobrev said.

“Viktor Orban surveilled his own people using dishonest and unlawful means, and the EU withholds funding so the Hungarian government cannot distribute it among its oligarchs and family members,” she said, referring to press reports on the surveillance of Hungarian journalists and opposition politicians.

The “new government of the republic” after the elections next April will make all data on surveillance public and will reopen negotiations on EU funding,

she said.

Orbán: Government initiates child protection referendum – UPDATED

orbán

The government has decided to initiate a referendum concerning issues around child protection, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Wednesday.

In a video posted on Facebook, Orbán said that “Brussels has clearly attacked Hungary” over the country’s recent child protection law.

“Our children’s future is at stake and we cannot make concessions in this case,” Orban said, and insisted that “when pressure on our country is this strong, Hungary could only be protected by the common will of the people”.

The questions for the planned referendum are as follows:

Do you support that minors should attend school classes on the topic of sexual orientations without parental consent?

Do you support promoting gender change treatments among minors?

Do you support that gender reassignment surgery should be available to minors?

Do you support that media content influencing sexual development should be presented to minors without restriction?

Do you support that media content depicting gender change should be presented to minors?

The prime minister called on voters to say no to all those questions and “stop Brussels” just like in 2016, when “Brussels wanted to force migrants onto Hungary”.

UPDATE

The referendum bid was submitted to the National Election Committee later on Wednesday, which will now have 60 days to assess the questions. The committee will approve the bid if the subject comes under the purview of parliament, if the questions do not touch on fields such as the budget or international treaties, and if they are worded clearly enough for the purpose.

The committee’s decision can be appealed within 15 days after release.

Hungary parliament Budapest
Read alsoScandal! Hungarian journalists and oppositional figures attacked by a spyware

Orbán cabinet: Referendum on Fudan University should be held after general election

parliament-crowd-demonstration-fudan

The government backs the idea of consulting Budapest residents in a referendum on whether they want Fudan University to be located in the capital once the facts related to the investment are fully known, Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff said in an interview to media outlet Mandiner on Sunday.

Asked whether or not a Fudan University campus will be built in Budapest, Gulyás said the investment was not at a stage suitable for public debate.

Once the plans and financial terms are clear in around 18 months’ time, then a public debate should take place, he added.

  • Massive demonstration against Fudan University in Budapest – PHOTOS

Responding the opposition’s claim that Fudan University was proof of the government’s commitment to the East in preference to the West, Gulyás said that as a NATO and EU member Hungary need not make declarations of allegiance to the West.

“Despite ongoing disputes, they are our allies,” he said, adding that whereas Hungary formed part of the Western system of alliances it also sought equable relations with the world’s major powers, including China and Russia.

Meanwhile, commenting on the opposition’s primaries, Gulyás insisted that the leader of the leftist Democratic Coalition, Ferenc Gyurcsány “and his people”, were busy in the background striking deals as to who the candidate for prime minister and many individual constituency candidates should be. He said that if the opposition prevailed in the 2022 general election, Gergely Karácsony, the current mayor of Budapest, would likely end up being the premier and Gyurcsány’s wife, Klara Dobrev, would be his deputy.

parliament-crowd-demonstration-fudan
Read alsoOrbán cabinet: Referendum on Fudan University should be held after general election

Opposition to submit bill on postal voting for Hungarians abroad

vote

Opposition LMP on Thursday said it will submit to parliament a bill that would allow Hungarians living abroad to vote by mail in elections.

László Lóránt Keresztes, the party’s group leader, told an online press conference that Hungarians who had been “forced to move abroad to find work because of the government’s flawed policies” over the past decade but still have a permanent address in the country should be given an opportunity to participate in elections.

Gábor Vona, the former head of conservative Jobbik, told the same press conference that his foundation had recently organised an “online referendum” asking people whether they agreed that Hungarians who have a permanent address in Hungary but are abroad on election day should have the chance to vote by mail.

Altogether 92.9 percent of the referendum’s 22,396 participants voted in favour of postal voting, while 4.8 percent voted against it, he said.

Vona said that besides resolving the issue of mail voting, another aim of the referendum had also been to introduce the concept of an online referendum into Hungarian public life.

vote
Read alsoOpposition to submit bill on postal voting for Hungarians abroad

Ruling parties MPs refuse to debate proposal for Hungxit only backed by referendum

eu flag hungary

Parliament’s justice committee did not accept for debate a proposal by opposition party Parbeszed that Hungary should only exit the European Union on the basis of a valid referendum in favour of such a move.

Párbeszéd MP Tamás Mellár said on Tuesday that the party’s co-leader, Tímea Szabó, had submitted the proposal on Dec. 8 because “signs were aplenty that the Orbán government was moving in the direction of leaving the European Union”, noting that

the government had mooted vetoing the EU budget at the time.

He said the proposal still had relevance, insisting that the government was breaching European regulations in connection with vaccination passports. He added that

the government had licenced coronavirus vaccines that were not approved by the EU and would issue vaccination certificates that do not state the type of vaccine administered, with implications concerning free travel in the bloc.

Mellár vowed to continue pressing their proposal and would “return to the issue in 2022” (an election year).

travel tourism airport passport
Read alsoEU to propose vaccine passports in March in time for summer

Coronavirus – Mayor: Use of EU aid should be decided by referendum

Gergely Karácsony, Budapest’s mayor, has said the way EU aid is used should be decided in local referendums held by municipalities up and down the country.

Local councils should receive at least half of the EU funding for handling the economic effects of the coronavirus epidemic, and the aid should be distributed in proportion to the respective local populations, Karácsony said after meeting local government leaders on Saturday, adding that popular votes could be held next spring.

He said the referendum results would show that “the people’s voice is the strongest”.

Karácsony, who co-leads the opposition Parbeszed party, said localities were “in trouble” and needed EU recovery money. “No one knows better than local mayors what to spend European funds on,” he added.

The “local referendum movement”, he said, presented a “historic chance” to build a “new Hungary”. He called for a fairer, more democratic and greener Hungary.

Hungary, Karácsony noted, is set to receive 2,500 billion forints (EUR 6.85bn) in additional EU funding.

He said the capital’s administration wanted to turn EU funding towards investments in geothermal energy for district heating as well as an energy efficiency programme and new, greener public transport vehicles.

Karácsony also noted that the mayors of 36 European cities, including the Visegrad countries, have formed an alliance with a view to persuading European decision-makers to allow localities to apply for more EU funding directly.

orbán varga talk
Read alsoEuropean Parliament criticises Hungary’s epidemic response law and EU funding

Socialists appeal rejection of referendum bid at top court

court antifa case

The opposition Socialists on Monday submitted an appeal to the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, over the National Election Committee (NVB) rejecting a submission by the party on holding a referendum concerning the protection of Hungary’s natural lakes.

Party director Zsolt Molnár told a press conference in front of the court building that the NVB’s decision was “appalling”, adding that the Socialists trust the Kúria would make a “positive decision”.

Molnár expressed hope that after the referendum Hungary’s free waters would indeed become freely accessible to all and all attempts to overdevelop beaches and camping sites, and drain natural marshlands would be forbidden.

He said that during the autumn term of parliament, the Socialists would submit a comprehensive amendment proposal for the law on Lake Balaton.

NVB rejected the Socialists’ submission on August 24.

The Socialists had intended to ask citizens whether public beaches on natural lakes should be accessible free of charge and whether parliament should ban the sale of public beaches. A third question concerned whether construction projects on them should be banned.

The NVB rejected the first question on the ground that it was aimed at amending the constitution. The committee said in its justification that the matter of public beaches should be handled locally either by the local council or by way of a local referendum.

The committee rejected the question concerning a ban on construction projects at public beach sites on the ground that the matter did not fall within parliament’s jurisdiction and was therefore ineligible to be put to a nationwide referendum.

The NVB also said the bans constituted an infringement of the constitutionally guaranteed ownership rights of local councils.

The third question concerning a proposed ban on the sale of public beaches was rejected on the same grounds as the other questions and due to a lack of legal clarity.

Tihany Peninsula
Read alsoInvestment opportunity? The government sells its real estates at Lake Balaton

European Commission registers Minority SafePack initiative signatures

Minority SafePack

The European Commission said on Friday that it has registered the signatures collected in support of the Minority SafePack European Citizenship Initiative for Minorities in its online system.

The commission will now have six months to adopt an official position on the initiative which seeks European Union protection for indigenous national minorities in the bloc and to decide on the process of enshrining it into law.

The initiative will also be debated in the European Parliament.

The EC will also initiate a meeting between commissioners in charge of minority issues, the initiative’s petitioners and representatives of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN).

The signature drive initiated by Romania’s ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party and coordinated by FUEN was launched in April 2017.

A total of 1,128,385 signatures were certified across the 28 EU member states over the year-long campaign.

Election committee green-lights European citizens initiative on food quality assurance

store

Hungay’s National Election Committee (NVB) has verified and approved signatures gathered for a European Citizens’ Initiative on preventing food fraud.

At its meeting on Thursday, it certified that 62 valid signatures have been collected.

The “Eat ORIGINal! Unmask your food” initiative’s organisers want compulsory declarations of origin for all food produce and to ensure consumers’ right to relevant information.

The European Commission registered the Citizens’ Initiative on October 2, 2018.

Meanwhile, NVB withheld approval of the green opposition LMP’s new “green referendum” questions at its meeting today. The questions were submitted by László Heltai, a founding member of the LMP.

Supreme court okays referendum on sports stadium plans for Csepel island

The plan of the new stadium

Hungary’s supreme court has given the green light to a referendum initiative in which voters could be asked if they want to see a new sports stadium built on southern Budapest’s Csepel island.

The initiative, sponsored by a former politician of green LMP, was rejected by the National Election Committee (NVB) in July. Dániel Kassai sought to ask residents if the stadium construction, planned for the northern tip of the island, should be banned until January 1, 2023.

The NVB said at the time that the referendum would affect a government decree, while referenda could only be held concerning subjects under parliament’s powers.

In its binding ruling on Monday, the Kúria said that the referendum could only prevent construction until January 2023, rather than prevent it altogether, and would not affect the government’s powers to seek permits for the project.

As we wrote in 2017, the government passed a resolution in which it proposed that the City of Budapest and the Hungarian Olympic Committee should withdraw Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

No to Budapest2024 – Yes to the investments?

 

Hungarian opposition collects 680,000 signatures backing European Prosecutor initiative

Hungarian opposition collects 680,000 signatures backing European Prosecutor initiative

Opposition parties have collected a total 680,000 signatures in support of getting Hungary to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), independent MP Ákos Hadházy, who initiated the campaign, said on Wednesday.

At a press conference, Hadházy said European taxpayers had a right to know what governments were doing with their money.

He said Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party had assumed power in 2010 with the sole purpose of “stealing EU monies”.

“They’ve stolen so much and in such a transparent way that now they have to steal in order to stay in power,” Hadházy said.

He thanked the 26,000 people who took part in gathering the signatures.

Of the 680,000 signatures collected, he said, 130,000 were gathered by the Socialist Party and the Momentum Movement. The signature drive was funded by donations worth 10 million forints (EUR 31,150).

On another subject, the independent MP said the opposition had “clearly lost the European Parliament election”.

“Democracy and truth lost out to the government’s propaganda machine,”

Hadházy said. He said the opposition could only be successful in the autumn municipal elections if the parties cooperate properly.

Jobbik launches signature drive for ‘slave law’ repeal

Jobbik Hungarian opposition party

Conservative Jobbik has started a nationwide signature drive for the repeal of the labour code amendments tightening overtime rules in an attempt “to fight back” against “the governing parties that seek to eliminate Hungary’s strongest opposition force”, the deputy leader of the party said on Sunday.

Jobbik has already turned to Hungary’s supreme court, the Kúria, over the National Election Committee’s ruling rejecting the party’s national referendum initiative for the legislation’s withdrawal.

“We have chosen this form of action at a time when at stake is Jobbik’s survival,” Dániel Z Kárpát said, arguing that the party’s operation had been “practically paralysed by the State Audit Office” and “decisions by [ruling] Fidesz”.

“Fidesz and the Audit Office both know that Jobbik will not be able to pay the unreasonably excessive fine ASZ has levied on the party,” he added.

Z Kárpát said Jobbik would continue to fight for its survival as the “last remaining defender of democracy”.

As we wrote a few days ago, Tamás Sneider, the chairman of Jobbik, called together an extraordinary party congress because the State Audit Office fined the party for 270 M HUF (EUR 844 thousand). According to Sneider, they are going to discuss two topics: the termination of their parliamentary group which would raise further financial questions and the continuation of the national resistance announced by the party last year, read more details HERE.

Jobbik initiates setting up parliament committee on Paks upgrade

Paks nuclear plant

Conservative opposition Jobbik is proposing a parliamentary committee to be set up to review the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant, party lawmaker and deputy head of the sustainable development committee Lajos Kepli said on Wednesday.

Jobbik expects to have enough signatures from lawmakers to set up a committee, and possibly cooperation of all opposition parties on the matter, Kepli told a press conference.

Jobbik has always supported the peaceful use of nuclear energy but, as the project went along, an increasing number of economic and financial problems surfaced, he said.

The majority of Hungarians is against the upgrade of the plant, Kepli insisted, adding that

a referendum should be held to determine the future of nuclear energy production in the country.

Hungary signed a contract with Moscow in January 2014 on the construction of two blocks at the Paks nuclear power plant by Russia’s Rosatom. Russia has agreed to lend Hungary 10 billion euros to cover 80 percent of the project’s costs.

Photo: MTI

Jobbik to appeal election cttee rejection of referendum initiatives linked to ‘slave law’

Jobbik

The conservative opposition Jobbik party will submit an appeal to the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, against a decision by the National Election Committee, which rejected its referendum initiatives linked to “despotic measures dubbed Fidesz’s slave law,” lawmaker Tamás Pintér said on Saturday.

He said it was “a totally ridiculous response” that the committee threw out the initiatives claiming that they were ambiguous.

“What can be ambiguous about asking people if they want to live in Hungary as slaves and what can be ambiguous about asking them if they want to spend their free time at home, with their families, rather than at their place of work,” Jobbik MP Pintér told a press conference.

Such questions could have been clearly answered in a referendum if the “National Election Committee had not been an organisation run by [ruling] Fidesz and if Fidesz had not been afraid of the will of the people,” he said.

“Hungarian employees should be given a chance to decide on their lives, their overtime and how they get paid for it. It is not Fidesz that should decide about these issues on the order of multinational companies,” he said.

The election committee rejected the referendum initiatives concerning mandatory overtime rules and the deadline for payment for overtime work on Friday. It argued that since the initiatives were submitted, the related bill has been amended with a stipulation that all overtime work must be based on a voluntary agreement.

TRADE UNIONS AND OPPOSITIONS HELD ANTI-GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATION IN BUDAPEST – PHOTOS, DETAILS HERE