There is great interest in the national consultation; according to Wednesday morning aggregated data, the Hungarian people have already completed 232,000 national consultation questionnaires, Csaba Dömötör, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister said at a press conference held on Wednesday in Budapest.

According to Mr Dömötör’s information, the vast majority of questionnaires have been returned by mail.

Given that the final deadline for posting is as yet far away and not even the delivery of questionnaires is complete yet, this indicates a very high level of interest, the Parliamentary State Secretary concluded.

Mr Dömötör pointed out that while we had successfully concluded the first phase of the fight against the coronavirus epidemic, the virus was still present. Reports from neighbouring countries indicate rising numbers, and as we still do not have a vaccine at our disposal, Hungary, too, must prepare for a possible second wave. They are able to do so most effectively if they know which measures of the fight against the epidemic are most supported by the people. The consultation will give the government a clearer picture about this, he stressed.

The Parliamentary State Secretary expressed regret that – similar to their earlier poor practice – left-wing parties and other actors are attacking the consultation also this time. There are places where they are removing the questionnaires from letter boxes, in other places they are collecting the questionnaire consignments, while on Wednesday they even tried to hack the consultation website. Each such attack is a further reason for everyone to state their opinions, Mr Dömötör said.

He also highlighted that they are asking all political actors, in particular left-wing parties not to step outside the zone of legality. If they do not want to take part in the dialogue about the coronavirus, at least they should not hinder it, especially in light of the fact that the virus is completely neutral to internal political debates, he said.

In answer to a question about the fact that DK activists are repeatedly collecting consultation questionnaires, this time in the settlement of Veresegyház, he said it is problematic in its very foundations if certain political players try to prevent a consultation, a dialogue about an issue which concerns all our future. The government takes the view that it is important to consult with the people also between two elections. If they gather personal data without legal authorisation, they commit an illegal act. The data protection commissioner would do well to proceed in this case, and it is also well worth alerting the investigative authorities, the Parliamentary State Secretary said.

He encouraged left-wing parties, too, to state their opinions about the questions asked.

Mr Dömötör was also asked about the medical instrument which had been at the centre of debates in the past few days. He said they do not know when the second wave of the virus is to arrive, but they can see quite clearly that the second wave of fake news has already arrived. In this case, the opposition claimed that there is an instrument which demonstrates the presence of the coronavirus within minutes. By contrast, there is no trace of such an instrument having been registered in the system of the institute for pharmacology and food hygiene. Based on this, it is not very hard to conclude that there is no virus testing “miracle machine,” he added.

He said this is not the first item of fake news in the recent past. In addition to the alleged paramedic – who does not feature in the records of any ambulance service – he mentioned as an example the untrue claims about fatality data. A Member of Parliament of the party Párbeszéd claimed in Parliament that Hungary has the worst fatality rate in the world, while according to the actual facts we are among the states which have done best in the fight against the epidemic. Some left-wing Members of Parliament also claimed that physicians had not been given sufficient personal protection equipment which the heads of the institutions concerned had refuted. They further said that Parliament was not in session; this, however, did not prevent them from attending sittings of Parliament, he listed.

He said it would be good if the left-wing fake news factory finally shut down its operations.

Regarding the planned regulation of Airbnb services, he said the government will discuss the issue at its meeting on Wednesday. According to the version presented on the agenda of the cabinet meeting as the preferred option, local governments would be given the right to regulate the matter.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)