Opposition parties call on justice minister to quit

Budapest, May 22 (MTI) – Opposition parties Dialogue for Hungary (PM) and the Hungarian Liberal Party (MLP) have called on Justice Minister Laszlo Trocsanyi to resign over what they called “racist remarks” about Hungarian Roma earlier this week.

Trocsanyi told Inforadio last week that Hungary had trouble taking in economic migrants as it is focused on helping 800,000 Roma catch up.

PM lawmaker Rebeka Szabo said on Friday that it was “outrageous” that Trocsanyi had depicted the Roma community as a burden on the country.

MLP said: “whoever judges Hungarians by their ethnicity has no option but to resign immediately.”

In response to calls for his resignation, Trocsanyi said he “outright rejects” the “outrageous” and “baseless” accusations against him by the opposition parties.

Trocsanyi told MTI in a statement that caring for the Roma population was a priority and a “moral obligation”.

The minister said he was proud that Hungary adopted the European Union’s Roma Strategy during its EU presidency. Trocsanyi said the issue was not solely a Hungarian, but also a European one, adding that improvements had to be made in education, employment, health-care and housing. Protecting fundamental rights by fighting against discrimination and segregation is another priority, he said.

Trocsanyi said that joint efforts to achieve all these goals would be jeopardised if certain parties “cried racism” just because he prioritises the social inclusion of Roma over “supporting economic migrants”.

Trocsanyi called it important to reject claims that Hungary is against refugees as the country respects and will fulfil all its international obligations relating to refugees.

Photo: MTI

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