“Fidesz’s Cronies” Should Get Out Of The Gas Business, Says Socialist

Budapest, June 18 (MTI) – The “cronies” of the ruling Fidesz party should get out of the gas business and make way for gas reserves in storage to be restored to the levels they were in 2010, a Socialist lawmaker told a news conference today.

Bertalan Toth said that Hungary lacked the appropriate levels of gas reserves thanks to “Fidesz’s cronies”. The government has spent the past few years importing cheap gas from Austria, ostensibly to fill the reserves, while in fact “passing it on to their cronies” who sell it via offshore companies at a big profit, Toth said.

In 2010 the gas stores were filled with 4.5 billion cubic metres while now there is barely more than 2 billion, he said.

In response Fidesz called on the Socialists “to stop its lies and scare stories.”

Hungary’s gas supplies are safe and “the Socialists also know this, yet they … seek to create an atmosphere of alarm,” the party said in a statement.

Hungary has a contingency plan in case either the Russian or the Ukrainian side fails to fulfil delivery, said Fidesz. Gas supplies are guaranteed through alternative routes of delivery and domestic production. What’s more, thanks to the government’s decision to nationalise gas stores, supplies are also guaranteed by state-owned gas reserves, the statement added.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters

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