Vona says no accident Jobbik MEP spy case dragging on – Fidesz responds

Budapest, October 21 (MTI) – It is someone’s interest that the case involving a Jobbik MEP accused of spying should drag on as long as possible, the radical nationalist party’s leader said on Wednesday.

Gabor Vona told public television M1 that if Bela Kovacs, the MEP in question, is guilty of the charge then he would receive his punishment. But if he is not, then the ruling Fidesz party should apologise to him,” he added.

On Tuesday, Fidesz group leader Lajos Kosa said the Kovacs case was the biggest political corruption scandal of the post-communist era.

Kovacs’s immunity was lifted by the European Parliament last week.

Kosa said Jobbik had been vocal in accusing Fidesz and the government of corruption, “yet the most important question marks regarding corruption have showed exactly on Jobbik’s playing field”.

The lifting of an MEP’s immunity for suspected spying is unprecedented, he said. Kovacs allegedly passed on information to Russia, and Jobbik has received the bulk of its financial support with Kovacs’s help, Kosa said.

Vona said that the party had asked the Hungarian government and security services to provide evidence to back up their accusations but they had failed to do so.

The Jobbik leader has said that for a long time the party has sought the lifting of Kovacs’s immunity so that he may defend himself against the allegations.

Responding to Vona’s remarks, Kosa told M1 on Wednesday that it stands without precedent that the lifting of a Hungarian MEP’s immunity was requested.

Asked why Fidesz had referred to corruption rather than spying in connection with Kovacs, Kosa said the gravest example of political corruption is if a foreign power buys a lawmaker and through him finances a party.

He added that Jobbik accuses everyone in a bid to make it less conspicuous that Jobbik is at the centre of this concrete case.

Photo: MTI

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