referendum

Orbán’s cabinet weekly press briefing about Ukraine education crisis, migration quotas and other topics

Anyone who endangers Hungarian interests will find themselves up against the Hungarian state, government office chief János Lázár said at his weekly press briefing on Thursday, in connection with the new Ukrainian education law and Romanian policy affecting a school for ethnic Hungarians in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely).

Lázár said the “coarse violation of Hungarian minority rights” was “unacceptable and shameful”. He called on the Ukrainian president not to sign the law, adding that the law was “a stab in the back”.

“Ukraine will lose a friend,” he said.

The government office chief also said Hungary would withhold its support for Romania’s membership of the OECD unless it sought a satisfactory conclusion to the issue of the Hungarian school in Targu Mures.

Hungary has also expressed its objection to Croatia’s OECD membership,

saying that the country has “harmed Hungarian economic interests”, citing the dispute between the two countries over Croatian oil and gas company INA and Hungarian peer MOL.

Meanwhile, on the subject of pensions paid to high-ranking dignitaries of the Communist regime, Lázár said the government was ready to examine the issue and conduct an investigation omitted in 1990.

Asked about remarks critical of the government by former ombudsman László Majtényi, who heads a prominent NGO, Lázár said NGOs are free to express their opinions, and he added that public life in Hungary was blooming without any hindrance.

Majtényi has accused the government and ruling parties of conducting a smear campaign against NGOs with the intention of intimidating them.

It is easy to blame the opposition parties’ failures on the government in election season, Lázár said. “But the opposition looks in the mirror, sees something appalling and smashes the mirror instead of taking a shave”, he said.

Challenged that opposition referendum bids “seem to go awry all the time”, Lázár said that the opposite was true.

Of opposition initiatives, many reached their goals, he said. Budapest is not hosting the Olympics, the shops are open on Sundays, and parliament has just raised the statute of limitations on corruption charges, just as the opposition proposed, he said. “They should be glad to be able to assert themselves, even in opposition,” he said.

Lázár dismissed a report about plans that the government would take over southern Hungarian city Pécs’s debts in exchange for ownership of the airport Pécs-Pogány,

which then would let to Russian energy giant Rosatom. No property swaps were discussed at the meeting, he said.

In connection with his personal plans, Lázár said that if it depended on him alone then he would work in his constituency between 2018 and 2022 and that he achieve more there than in government. He said, however, he was not without long-term ambitions. “Where there’s a job to do there are ambitions, but it is hard to sit on two horses at once.”

Speaking of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s itinerary in the near future, Lázár said Orbán is travelling to Poland on Friday and then to Vietnam and Singapore. Lázár said there will be no government meeting next week.

Anti-Corruption Alliance submits nine further anti-graft referendum questions

Former LMP lawmaker Gábor Vágó submitted nine new referendum questions aimed at combatting corruption to the National Election Office (NVI) on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference in front of the NVI’s Budapest headquarters, Vágó, who is secretary of the Anti-Corruption Alliance, noted that on Tuesday parliament voted to extend the statute of limitations on corruption crimes to 12 years. Vágó had initiated a referendum on the extension but after the ruling parties expressed support for it, the proposal was submitted to parliament.

“Referendums are the Achilles heel of Fidesz’s regime,”

Vágó said, arguing that if a referendum were to be held, the ruling parties “would be confronted with the public anger caused by their governance”.

One of the questions submitted by Vágó proposes that the position of chief public prosecutor should be a single-term position. Vágó said that

Péter Polt, the public prosecutor, was at the centre of the “spider web of the system of corruption”.

Another question seeks to establish a rule under which the chief public prosecutor could not be a former member of a political party and their relatives would not be allowed to work at the central bank.

Vágó also submitted a question aimed at prohibiting lawmakers from heading the tax office and preventing parliamentary immunity from applying in cases in which a lawmaker uses a vote to commit a crime of corruption.

Another question is aimed at barring the prime minister’s relatives from bidding for public projects.

The same question would also ask voters if prime ministerial candidates should be required to release their medical and psychological records.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

Campaign to collect signatures for anti-graft referendum gets under way in Hungary

A campaign to collect signatures for a referendum on extending the statute of limitations in the case of crimes involving corruption got under way on Sunday. 

Former LMP lawmaker Gábor Vágó initiated the campaign. At a news conference held at a popular market hall in Budapest, where volunteers collected signatures, Vágó, who is secretary of the Anti-Corruption Alliance, said the public prosecutor, Péter Polt, would “avert his eyes from corruption cases in vain”. Extending the statute of limitation would give the chance to punish people who commit corruption crimes.

The referendum question is the following:

“Do you agree that the punishability of corruption crimes should elapse at least twelve years after they were committed?”

Fully 120,000 valid signatures must be collected by Jan. 13 in order to qualify for holding a referendum.

Vago said the popular vote would show that it is possible to clean up public life. Moreover, the extension of the statute of limitations would lead to a government determined to eliminate corruption, he insisted.

He said

organisations that refused to join the initiative would demonstrate that “they support the corrupt system”

He planned to hand over the signatures during the autumn session of parliament so that the plebiscite could be held before the 2018 general election in the spring.

Referring to another referendum campaign on the question of whether to put a wage cap on company chiefs, he said several tens of thousands of signatures had already been collected and it would be good to coordinate the timing of the votes.

Gergely Karácsony, co-leader of the Dialogue party, told the news conference that the campaign sent an important message to voters that it was possible to clean up public life, and he said

the Achilles heel of the government headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was graft.

Other politicians who addressed the event included representatives from the Együtt, LMP and Socialist parties. Also present was a representative of the Momentum movement.

The National Election Committee gave the go-ahead for the plebiscite on April 10. The collection of signatures was able to proceed today after the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, recently upheld the decision of the committee following an appeal against it.

Fidesz’s incoming parliamentary group leader, Gergely Gulyás, told MTI in reaction that the ruling party regarded extending the statute of limitations as reasonable, and there was no need to collect signatures for a referendum on the subject.

He said if it were truly the case that the opposition parties wanted to extend the statute of limitations for corruption crimes rather than simply mounting a political campaign, then all they would have to do is submit the proposal to parliament and Fidesz would support it.

The Fidesz lawmaker added that a referendum could not be held in the current parliamentary cycle. He added, however, that there was nothing to stop the penal code from being amended to extend, in a matter of a few weeks, the statute of limitations in the case of corruption-related crimes.

Citing a graft case related to construction of the fourth metro line under Fidesz’s left-liberal governing predecessor, he said: “We find good reason to extend the statute of limitations”.

Kúria upholds election cttee decision green-lighting referendum bid

Hungary’s Kúria has upheld a decision by the National Election Committee (NVB) approving a referendum bid on the question of whether longer statutes of limitations should apply in the case of corruption crimes. 

The referendum question, submitted by former LMP lawmaker Gábor Vágó as a private individual, reads:

“Do you agree that the statute of limitations for the prosecution of crimes of corruption should be at least 12 years?”

The NVB approved a referendum question concerning the statute of limitations for corruption cases and rejected nine others on various other topics on May. An appeal was then lodged at the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, by Marcell Melles of the think-tank Alapjogokért Központ. The Kúria upheld the election committee’s decision, according to a statement by the body on Tuesday.

Bid seeking recognition of Szeklers as native ethnic group ‘dangerous’, says deputy PM

Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén has labelled a voter initiative seeking the recognition of the Szekler people as an ethnic group independent of the Hungarian nation as “harmful and dangerous”.

“Szeklers are Hungarians” and “by the logic of this initiative” Hungarians could further be divided into various other ethnic groups, Semjén told MTI on Monday, emphasising his opposition to the bid.

The initiative was either submitted “with good intentions” and “based on total incompetence” or “motivated by something worse”, Semjén said, noting that Romanian politics “has long desired to declare” that neither the Csangos nor the Szeklers are Hungarians.

He said the bid went against both “historical reality” and Hungary’s national interests.

Hungary’s National Election Committee (NVB) approved the initiative on July 25. From then, the petitioner has 120 days to collect 1,000 supporting signatures for the bid, which will then be reviewed by the National Election Office (NVI). If the signatures are approved, the NVB will seek an opinion on the initiative from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The NVB will then submit the initiative together with the supporting signatures and the Academy’s opinion to parliament for a vote.

Photo: MTI

Socialists rally support for referendum bids

Daily News Hungary

The referendums initiated on the introduction of a salary cap for the heads of state-owned companies and making December 24 a public holiday would serve to create a “fairer, more livable Hungary”, the Socialist Party‘s candidate for prime minister said on Tuesday.

It is only natural that the Socialists are supporting the referendum bids on both issues because they aim to establish the broadest coalition among those who want change in Hungary, László Botka told a press conference.

Botka said that if his party regains power, no one in the public sector would be allowed to make more money than the president of the republic. As regards the other referendum bid, he said making December 24 a public holiday would make working people’s lives easier.

He said the aims of both referendums were also in line with his party’s election platform.

The Szeged mayor said the “greatest sin” of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government was that Hungary had become divided while wealth inequality had risen to “extraordinary” levels. Botka said the “upper 10 percent” had nine times the amount of wealth as the poorest 10 percent while forty percent of the population lives below subsistence level.

Gyula Molnár, the Socialist Party’s chairman, said his party was ready to put its “full organisational strength” behind the signature drives for both referendum bids.

Gábor Vágó, former politician of the green opposition LMP party, who initiated the referendum on the introduction of a salary cap, said Hungary must act quickly on its mounting wage tension, arguing that the level of inequality between “the many” and “the elite” was becoming unbearable.

Asked how it could be ensured that the right people are put in charge of state-owned companies after wages are cut, Vago pointed out that managers’ wages were also too high in the private sector. How the state approaches this is “a political question”, he argued.

On Monday, the Socialist, LMP, Dialogue, Együtt and satirical Kétfarkú Kutya (Two-tailed Dog) parties said they would all take part in the signature drive for the referendum initiative aimed at capping the salaries of state company managers.

Five parties join referendum on public sector salary cap in Hungary

Daily News Hungary economy

Representatives of five opposition parties held a press conference on Monday in support of a referendum initiative aimed to put a cap on the salaries of state company managers.

The referendum was proposed by Gábor Vágó, former politician of the green opposition LMP party, to seek public support for changes under which the remuneration of leaders of state- and municipally owned companies could not exceed that of the president of the republic.

The initiative is supported by the Socialist, LMP, Dialogue, Együtt and satirical Kétfarkú Kutya (Two-tailed Dog) parties.

At the press conference, Vágó said that trade unions, civil organisations and private individuals have also joined the signature drive to collect “several hundred thousand” signatures and demonstrate that the government can be “toppled through a referendum”.

Socialist leader Gyula Molnár said this referendum could be symbolic and “break the myth that (ruling) Fidesz cannot be replaced and the country is beyond repair”.

Dialogue’s Gergely Karácsony said that the proposed referendum could be a “prelude” to an election victory next year, and highlighted the importance of cooperation between parties of the opposition.

Péter Juhász of Együtt slammed the government for “degrading” state-owned companies into “cash points”, with some of their top managers earning over 5 million forints (EUR 16,400) a month, compared to the president’s 1.5 million forints.

Speaking on behalf of Kétfarkú Kutya, Zsuzsanna Döme said that her party’s “passivists” are also helping with collecting signatures.

In response, Fidesz accused the left wing of applying double standards. While in power, the Socialists did not maximise the salaries of state company managers but cut pensions, the party said in a statement.

It will be up to Hungarian citizens to decide whether the referendum should be held or not, it said.

Signature drive starts for referendum on wage ceiling of state-owned company managers

Activists of the opposition Együtt party on Tuesday started collecting signatures in support for a referendum to set a maximum wage for managers of state-owned companies.

Party leader Péter Juhász told a press conference that “in a normal world” wages for managers at state-owned companies should be adjusted to the market but in Prime Minister “Viktor Orbán’s regime”, it is not performance or expertise but loyalty to ruling Fidesz which determines the salaries.

Green opposition LMP member Gábor Vágó, who initiated the referendum, told the same press conference that the issue highlights “the greatest problem in Hungarian society”, tension between wages. Top managers of state-owned companies make up to 5 million forints (EUR 16,200) a month, while half of Hungarians get less than 100,000 forints, he added.

Vágó said there are 120 days to collect the 200,000 signatures for the referendum to be called.

Previously, the opposition Socialists, LMP, Párbeszéd and the satirical Kétfarkú Kutya (Two-tailed Dog) party said that the would join the initiative but they will start collecting signatures at a later date.

The question submitted for the referendum and passed by the supreme court Kúria says

“Do you agree that the yearly income earned in employment with a state-owned company should not exceed the yearly salary of the president of the republic?”

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/vagogabor/

Jobbik delegation’s Sofia visit reveals launch date of signiture collection for the Wage Union

Jobbik’s president Gábor Vona and MP Márton Gyöngyösi, the representative of the Citizens’ Committee for the wage union initiative met the Bulgarian supporters of the project, the VMRO in Sofia on 10th July. The negotiations covered such issues as the utilization of the social and political potential lying in the Wage Union concept, the specifications of the cooperation between the two parties as well as the details of the campaign. First and foremost, it was also revealed when you can grab your pen or keyboard to submit your statement to support the idea of ensuring equal wages for equal work across the EU.

The two Jobbik MPs met three politicians representing VMRO, the junior coalition partner of the Bulgarian government: MEP Angel Dzhambazki, MP Julian Angelov and Mihail Petrov, the president of the party’s youth organization.

Reforming the EU is a strategic issue

“We believe we can create a Europe where we, Eastern Central European nations can feel good, too,” emphasized Gábor Vona in the Sofia meeting of the two rightist parties, adding that this concept was neither utopian nor populist but a strategic goal – regardless of what critics say. However, the president also noted that Eastern Central European nations must do their own job to make the West consider them as equal partners instead of cheap labour and easy market.

In Mr Vona’s view, this is the only way to prevent the brain drain from causing a grave disaster in the affected countries. Describing the current situation, he said: “Our youth emigrate while people of Asia and Africa want to immigrate into our country.” Jobbik’s primary goal is to enable everyone to prosper in their own homeland for which we need a fair and just Europe, he said, explaining that the concept reached far beyond the issue of wages: “If we fail to voice our needs, we will be left with a European Union that is good for others but not for us.”

VMRO representative Julian Angelov stated: “This initiative was launched at the best possible time because wage inequalities make our countries lose their population and end up in a disastrous economic situation.” Talking about the emigration of the Eastern Member States’ population, the MP said it was a vital issue just like the question what kind of European Union we would have in the future or what would the role of the eastern states be in the system: “Will we be a mixture of cheap labour force and some economic subcontractors for Germany or will there be a booming, prosperous community across the whole continent?”

Get ready, the collection of the statements of support begins soon

The participants also talked about the strategies and milestones of collecting the signatures needed for the Citizens’ Initiative. Mr Angelov emphasized VMRO’s substantial experience in civil initiatives and collection of signatures, which means that they will probably not have any difficulties collecting the necessary 12 750 statements from Bulgaria. In fact, they were likely to collect significantly more, he added.

The pro-government MP also noted that two labour rights associations were expected to help them in this project since they had already cooperated with them in other matters. Jobbik MP Márton Gyöngyösi asserted that the organizers should collect more than the required minimum of signatures because the project must demonstrate a wide popular support, otherwise the EC might sweep it off the table.
Mr Vona added that Jobbik intended to collect one million signatures from Hungary alone and they were going to employ all of Jobbik’s means to achieve this goal.

The parties all noted the need for a joint and coordinated campaign for the wage union initiative although Jobbik does not wish to influence any organization in their approach to the voters in their own countries. Jobbik believes that each country must decide how to efficiently communicate the common message and how to thematize the public discourse. However, Mr Vona and Mr Gyöngyösi both emphasized their willingness to help any of their partners. Talking about the technical details of the process, Mr Gyöngyösi revealed that the online collection could begin in one or two weeks, while Jobbik was going to start setting up street stands on 20th August.

Agreements

Adopting Mr Angelov’s proposition, the two delegations agreed that Bulgaria was going to hold a grand campaign kick-off event in Sofia in early September with the participation of Jobbik’s representatives.

They also agreed that VMRO and its trade union partners would send their delegations to the international conference of trade unions and workers’ associations to be organized by Jobbik in Budapest on 7th September. Reflecting on some details of the conference, Mr Gyöngyösi said they would invite unions and organizations which officially endorsed the Wage Union concept and were ready to collect signatures from their members. The conference will discuss the practical aspects of the collection process as well as help participants to network and exchange ideas.

Jobbik’s and VMRO’s representatives also agreed that both parties had a lot to do in the European Parliament so that they could win as many Eastern Central European MEPs for the wage union initiative as possible. For that purpose, they will cooperate more closely in the future.

Election Committee rejects referendum initiatives concerning Paks upgrade

Paks nuclear plant

The National Election Committee on Tuesday threw out three referendum initiatives concerning the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant.

The referendum questions were proposed by co-leaders of the green opposition LMP party Bernadett Szél and Ákos Hadházy.

The first question read: “Do you agree that a new nuclear block should not be built in Hungary before parliament passes legislation concerning the final storage of spent, high radiation fuel rods?” The committee rejected the initiative saying that it would impact an international agreement. They also said it was “misleading” because “it appears to concern storage, while in fact it is aimed at thwarting the upgrade”.

The second question would have read “Do you agree that the combined output of nuclear blocks in Hungary should not exceed 2,000 MW?” The committee again said that the question would be in conflict with an international agreement, adding that it was also misleading, because it suggests that a referendum could thwart the Paks upgrade. The committee noted that a referendum held now would be binding for parliament until 2021, while the planned new blocks at Paks will not be completed until 5 years later.

The third question was aimed at legislation banning the storage of highly radioactive waste in Hungary. The committee said that it would also impact an international agreement because the Hungary-Russia deal on the upgrade project includes provisions for handling fuel rods. They added that a positive referendum would also involve Hungary’s having to negotiate with a third country, which it cannot do on its own under the Euratom Agreement.

The decisions are not binding; the proponents have 15 days to appeal to the supreme court.

As we wrote, the upgrade of Hungary’s sole nuclear power plant in Paks is ineligible for a referendum as it is governed by an international accord, the head of the National Election Committee (NVB) told on June.

Photo: atomeromu.hu

Top 5 common misconceptions on the European Wage Union

“Equal wages for equal work,” Jobbik and its Eastern European allies want this fundamental right to be finally included in the EU Treaties.

That is why the European Citizens’ Initiative was launched and it was eventually given the green light by the European Commission. However, there are a lot of misconceptions and malevolent rumours being spread about the project to eliminate European wage inequalities. Some of this false information is planted in people’s minds by the Hungarian government’s whispering campaign. This article refutes the most common ones.

Let’s take a look at the most typical objections to the concept.

1. You can’t start paying German wages in Hungary overnight

This is one of the most common anti-Wage Union “arguments” desperately blared by the government’s propaganda machine even though the wage union would obviously not bring western wages to Hungary overnight, and Jobbik never claimed that it would.

The essential aim of the initiative is to help the ideal of “equal wages for equal work” (which means closing the gap between the wages of individuals working in a similar position and similar conditions in different parts of the EU) become a fundamental European right, the legal enforcement of which must be solved by the European Commission.

Thus true integration could finally begin and there would be a chance to spend cohesion funds in a purposeful way, contrary to what happens now when the EURO billions that fail to be stolen by the government and its circle are wasted on spectacular but useless projects generating business for big western corporations.

So this is not an immediate solution but a complex and time-consuming process which should actually have been completed in the past 13 years but has been sabotaged jointly by Fidesz and the Socialist Party in Hungary.

2. Hungarian enreprises would be unable to pay Western wages, half the country would go bankrupt

The refutation of the next common “counter-argument” comes from the answers to the misconceptions above: since the project does not involve an immediate wage increase but a gradual reform of the regulations, there is no need to fear that the economy would collapse.

Such fears are especially unfounded since, as Gábor Vona outlined in his programme speech, a functional wage union requires a radical reform of national economies. The reform would involve the reallocation of the incredibly high tax discounts and subsidies currently enjoyed by multinational companies to Hungarian small and medium enterprises.

According to the data published by Hungary’s Central Statistical Office, the former Socialist governments spent an average of 6.4 million HUF on each job created, while Mr Orbán’s cabinet pays an average of 12.6 million HUF to multinational companies for a job that often involves underpayment, unworthy conditions and overwork. Furthermore, the government covers all employment taxes and contributions of big companies for 4 years in advance.

Just imagine what would happen if these funds could be used by Hungarian SMEs to create jobs and increase wages!

Besides, the EU’s cohesion funds could also be spent on the Hungarian enterprises that create quality jobs locally. These measures could achieve a key goal of the initiative: to enable everyone to prosper in their own homeland.

3. If there is a Wage Union, big business will flee from Hungary

This is another common objection and misconception in terms of the initiative, and the servants of international big business are ready to flaunt it any time they see a proposal to eliminate European inequalities of living standards.

Undoubtedly, the interests of multinational companies would be somewhat curbed if the new principle is adopted but you should not believe that international businesses are omnipotent: if Eastern Europe together and its national states on their own show the sufficient resolve, they can force these companies to swallow the bitter pill.

It has been demonstrated over and over again that multinational companies suffer much bigger losses by being absent from a multi-million market than by paying decent wages to their employees or getting lower tax discounts than most of the local enterprises (remember Tesco’s often-heralded withdrawal when its market interests always made the supermarket chain stay in Eastern Europe instead of leaving a hundred-billions-HUF market to the competitors).

Experience shows that huge manufacturers do not profit enough from allocating their production capacities outside the EU to countries with even less stable economies than ours. If they did, all multinational companies would long have outsourced all their units to Ukraine or the Balkans.

Besides, Hungary’s economic environment could be greatly improved by suppressing corruption as multinational companies are appalled by it (no matter how hard that is to believe with our Eastern European imprints). However, the current kleptocracy can only be replaced by a new, truly 21st-century government.

4. Western countries are not interested in a Wage Union because they live off the cheap Eastern European labour

This objection has some truth in it but you must not mistake the interest of Western European national economies for those of multinational companies, since the two are often different. Fundamentally interested in profit maximization and sometimes willing to make unethical business moves to achieve it, big corporations are obviously happy to have cheap and exploitable yet highly skilled Eastern European labour. However, the workers coming from our region also cause significant damage to the western economies because they exercise a downward pressure on wages, which particularly reduces the chances of the young local population to find a job and increases unemployment in those countries, thus lowering the overall living standards there.

Western European people are much more sensitive to living standards issues than us, and they may as well be ready to take political action. The success of the Brexit campaign was a clear sign of that, and the growing discrimination against Eastern Europeans is another relevant indicator of western concerns.

5. If the Wage Union is realized, migrants will flood into Eastern EU member states as well

This is perhaps Fidesz’ and Mr Orbán’s most absurd and blatant lie about the wage union. Fortunately, it’s a piece of cake to refute it: wages have nothing to do with a country’s security and immigration policy.

No matter how hard the government is trying to blend the two aspects together, the only thing these areas have in common is that a clear political will is required for stopping migration as well as for achieving decent living standards. Hungary’s leadership obviously lacks the will for either of them.

We understand that migrants are an excellent tool to scare people but if we believe the oft-quoted statement of Mr Orbán’s communication, the fence and the legal seal on our southern border has already solved this problem. However, if we choose to believe the other statement which says that the migrant threat is still here, it would just prove the government’s utter incompetency.

As far as the issue of living standards is concerned, Fidesz, regardless if it was in government or opposition, has obviously been unwilling to do anything to prevent Hungarian people from going abroad and to enable them to prosper at home (except for a small privileged group) even though the party had ample time and opportunity to do so.

On that note, it is now clear why Fidesz is so embarrassingly jealous of Jobbik’s achievement: the national people’s party has already done more from opposition to improve Hungarian living standards than Mr Orbán who peddles cheap and vulnerable Hungarian labour from door to door in the world’s investment markets.

Paks upgrade ineligible for referendum?

Paks nuclear plant

The upgrade of Hungary’s sole nuclear power plant in Paks is ineligible for a referendum as it is governed by an international accord, the head of the National Election Committee (NVB) told the Tuesday edition of daily Magyar Nemzet.

The Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, already made it clear three years ago that the issue of the Paks upgrade pertains to an international treaty, is about the plant’s expansion and the financing of the project and a separate international agreement has been signed on nuclear damage as well, András Patyi told the paper. Hungary’s referendum laws prohibit even a confirmatory referendum on such issues, he added.

“To say that 70 referendum initiatives have been submitted [on the issue of Paks] is just a play on words,” said Patyi. He said petitioners were trying to create the impression that the NVB rejects all referendum questions. He said petitioners were deliberately wording their questions in ways that made it impossible for the NVB to approve them.

Hungary signed an agreement with Russia on the construction of two blocks at the Paks nuclear power plant in 2014.

Photo: atomeromu.hu

Election committee rejects LMP’s Paks referendum initiative

Paks nuclear plant

Budapest, May 25 (MTI) – The National Election Committee (NVB) rejected on Thursday a submission by the green opposition LMP party which had sought approval for referendum questions concerning the secrecy of documentation and the budget related to the planned expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant.

LMP lawmaker Ákos Hadházy turned to the committee with a request to hold a plebiscite on removing the secrecy clauses.

In the proposed referendum, voters would have been asked: “Do you agree that parliament should enact declassification of all documents concerning the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant?”

The majority of the members of the NVB judged the question to be inadmissible because, among the reasons given, the sides in the agreement to expand the Paks plant had committed themselves to treating data given to each other as a secret.

Hadházy’s second question was: “Do you agree that parliament should enact declassification of all itemised budgets based on which the total cost of the upgrade has been calculated?” The committee rejected the second question with similar arguments as in the first case.

Meanwhile, the committee also rejected seven other referendum initiatives which were similar to each other and aimed at the mandatory screening of the assets of all government officials and municipal leaders as well as their family members.

Again, the majority of committee members voted against the initiatives, saying that they were indirectly aimed at amending the constitution, that they were unclear and would affect an “extremely” large number of people.

NVB head András Patyi argued that proponents who resubmitted referendum questions with minor variations, but failed to seek legal remedy, did not sincerely seek approval of the question in hand. He therefore proposed declaring this practice a violation of the law. NVB members delegated by the opposition Socialist Party, Jobbik, and green LMP voted against establishing such a violation.

NVB’s decisions are non-binding; the proponents have 15 days to seek legal remedy from the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court.

György Gémesi, head of the Új Kezdet (New Beginning) party, said after the meeting that they would start collecting signatures to promote the asset screening of officials despite NVB’s veto and turn to the Kúria at the same time. He also insisted that NVB’s decisions were politically motivated.

Photo: atomeromu.hu

Vona: One million signatures needed for wage union initiative

Gyöngyös, May 25 (MTI) – Countries participating in a bid launched by opoosition Jobbik to equalise wages throughout the European Union have one year to collect a total of one million signatures in support of the initiative, party leader Gábor Vona said on Thursday.

The European Commission approved the European citizens’ initiative prepared jointly by eight central and eastern European member states last week, giving them the green light to start collecting supporting signatures.

The campaign will have to gather a minimum number of signatories in at least seven member states on its way to the one million signatures. The minimum number of signatories varies by member state, as it must be 750 multiplied by the number of MEPs elected from the given member state.

This means that a minimum of 17,250 valid signatures will need to be collected in Hungary, Vona said, adding that his party intends to exceed that number many times over.

The civil initiative calls for cementing the principle of “equal pay for equal work” among the EU’s basic principles, Vona said.

He said signatures would also be collected electronically, with strict data protection conditions. The data of those signing the petition electronically will be sent to EU servers, he said.

LMP to collect signatures to support initiative against Paks nuclear plant upgrade

Budapest, May 22 (MTI) – The opposition LMP party has decided to start collecting signatures to force the authorities to allow a referendum on a planned upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, LMP co-leader Ákos Hadházy noted security, financial and corruption risks around the upgrade project, which his party has opposed since the beginning. He referred to a referendum in Switzerland, in which residents rejected nuclear energy, and said that “the Hungarian prime minister, however, thinks that Hungarian people should not occupy themselves with such trifles”.

Bernadett Szél, LMP’s other co-leader, said that “the government would not ask the Hungarian people but Russian President Vladimir Putin for directions”.

“Orbán has become a communist… who governs against the people, because more and more are aware of the risks around the Paks project and would vote accordingly in a referendum,” she said.

Szél also urged that parliament should ratify the Istanbul Agreement and pass legislation against domestic violence before the end of its spring season.

Photo: MTI

Jobbik to start collecting signatures for European wage union

Budapest (MTI) – Jobbik will start collecting signatures in the summer in support of its proposal to iron out regional wage disparities in the European Union, party leader Gábor Vona said in an interview published in Saturday’s Magyar Nemzet daily.

As a first step towards a “wage union”, a European commissioner should be appointed in charge of closing the gap between central and eastern Europe and western members of the bloc, Vona said. Such a union would require competitive businesses and a different policy for distributing cohesion funds.

As the wage union would involve the public sector, Vona said the EU should “start considering” a minimum wage for the sector across the community. He said such a measure would require a contribution from the EU, adding, however, that “countries in a better position could also contribute more themselves”.

Asked whether Jobbik’s plan would entail greater influence by Brussels in some areas, Vona said an economic union would be “useful” while “politically each country should retain its independence”.

Photo: Balázs Béli

We takes first step to change EU, says Jobbik

While Hungary’s PM Viktor Orbán allegedly fights Brussels and, either negligently or wilfully, puts Hungary in an unfavourable international situation, Jobbik has found the way to potentially bridging the gap between western and eastern EU member states. The party’s initiative entered its hardest yet highly motivating phase when the European Commission gave the green light for it.

The real challenge begins now, as one million statements of support need to be collected, either online or on paper, from the initiating countries within 12 months. It is Jobbik’s key objective to succeed with this mission so that Hungarian people could finally get a chance to reach Western European living standards without having to leave their own homeland.

As the second step in the “Vona18” programme, the party’s president announced the launch of a European Citizens’ Initiative for eliminating European wage inequalities. The president is fully committed to achieving that the “European Wage Union” become one of the EU’s fundamental freedoms because when Hungary joined the European Union, our citizens cast their ballots in the hope that the accession would trigger the country’s and the eastern region’s convergence to the EU average. Contrary to the expectations, the gap just widened even more: while consumer prices did reach western levels, or even exceeded them in many cases, wages failed to follow suit.

The Orbán government uses the EU funds for nothing but lining its pals’ pockets, while Fidesz conducts a double talk: they make Hungarian people believe that Brussels hurts us all the time so that the PM can successfully be promoted as Hungary’s champion. The whole propaganda campaign is financed by the taxpayers’ money.

But how many times have we seen PM Orbán bang his fist on the table in Brussels and fight for better living standards for Hungarian people? He has never done so, and when Jobbik requested his support for the wage union motion, he openly rejected it because it was not in his interest for Hungarian wages to increase.

However, Jobbik did not need the PM’s help to gain the support of 7 countries for launching an initiative. Within less than 3 months after the announcement made last December, the representatives of Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Estonia joined the initiative.

So the founding charter was signed at the citizens’ committee meeting held in Hotel Kempinski Budapest on 14th March. Furthermore, this is the first cause that could trigger such a cooperation among the nations of the historically exhausted Eastern European region. At the committee’s first meeting, Jobbik’s president Gábor Vona emphasized that the initiative was not against Western Europe and that it was “about Europe’s future. A strengthening Eastern Central Europe is important for Western Europe as well.”

After the submission of the document, Jobbik MP Márton Gyöngyösi, the representative of the citizens’ committee launched a nationwide campaign to ensure that the petition called “Equal wages for equal work” could be presented in all Hungarian cities. He also met representatives of employers’ and workers’ associations in the Parliament to discuss the motion. In his Wednesday’s press conference, Mr Gyöngyösi told us that the participating unions responded very positively to the wage union concept. He also emphasized that they were trying to integrate the unions’ demands into the project. The participating unions reassured the party that they would actively support the collection of signatures. As for the other unions who could not participate in the meeting for some reason, Mr Vona and Mr Gyöngyösi will jointly visit them to discuss the matter. One of these meetings will be held on Friday with the Forum for the Co-operation of Trade Unions.

The role of trade unions is especially important as they can reach out to workers, which would be another means of collecting the necessary number of signatures, besides setting up street stands and a website. The Treaty of Lisbon specifies very serious requirements for the signature collection process, by the way.

Expressing his optimism about the project’s future, the MP emphasized that some other countries already wished to join the original 8 in signature collection. This is a clear indication that people can identify with this issue all the way from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Mr Gyöngyösi said it was a historic success that the European Commission registered the citizens’ initiative launched by Jobbik, the purpose of which is to “achieve a fairer Europe where the Union is laid on new foundations”. Pointing out that Hungarian people had been waiting for the issue of wage inequalities to be put on the EU’s agenda ever since our accession to the Union, the MP asserted this petition meant a chance “to create a liveable, attractive Hungary.”

By having the initiative registered, Jobbik has already done more for the citizens than all the governments of the past 27 years combined, and proved that it was not an internationally isolated party. On the contrary, it is indeed able to lead an international cooperation project for an important cause. “While Fidesz conducts freedom fights and the Socialist Party unscrupulously serves the interests of Brussels’ power, Jobbik stands for the people and represents Hungarian interests.” He also emphasized that, besides the EU’s administrative processes, Jobbik had to overcome Hungarian partisan resistance as well: PM Orbán had repeatedly refused to back the proposal, claiming that the EU had no means to reduce wage gaps.

However, Brussels’ decision on this matter is a clear message to Mr Orbán that the goal is realistic and Jobbik’s motion is supported. Thus, the Hungarian opposition party managed to raise the wage union concept to the level of the migration issue. Now there is a chance to emphasize that true European solidarity lies in the implementation of the wage union rather than letting in migrants.

The MP asked EU citizens to invest all their efforts into helping the “Equal wages for equal work” principle to be integrated into EU law. The most important goals are to create a “Europe that shows solidarity as well as a strong Eastern Central Europe and a liveable Hungary.” In other words, the objective is to create a country where impoverishment, indebtedness and forced emigration is replaced by life and prosperity at home.

European Commission registers Jobbik’s initiative for wage union

Press release – The European Commission has registered Jobbik’s initiative for a wage union, which means that the collection of signatures may begin.

Jobbik has recently launched a citizens’ initiative for a European wage union, announced as Step 2 of the “Vona18” programme. The representatives of the following countries signed the founding charter: Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia and Hungary. The objective is to ensure that EU citizens receive equal wages for equal work.

After the declaration of the initiative, Jobbik’s president emphasized that it was reaching far beyond the issue of European wages: it aimed for competitive domestic enterprises, a new cohesion policy and a new European Union with more solidarity where eastern member states could feel at home, too. He also noted that their citizens’ initiative for a wage union was not against Western Europe. It is not charity they are after. Instead, they want the European community to provide equal conditions for each member state. Criticizing the current situation, he said that the movement of workers was one-directional and a “price union” had already been implemented while a wage union had not.

The initiative has been considered by the European Commission and the following decision has been made: Brussels registered the initiative, so the collection of signatures may begin. One million statements of support need to be collected in one year for the European Commission to put the matter on its agenda.

Photo: MTI