It is necessary to extend and declare a state of danger in the interest of the swift adoption of decisions that serve to protect human lives or jobs, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister stressed on the Tuesday morning programme of the public service television news channel M1.

Csaba Dömötör said the state of danger is in force for fifteen days (until 26 March) and Parliament should decide on its extension. However, the opposition in Parliament did not vote for the extension of the state of danger with special urgency already on Tuesday; as a result, this will be delayed until next Tuesday.

The State Secretary highlighted that, also in the interim, the government will do everything it can to adopt the necessary decisions within the shortest possible time, and will to this end consider and where necessary resort to all available legal options.

Mr Dömötör also said the suspension of debt repayments is automatic. However, those who want to can continue repayments under the original terms and conditions. Banks must be notified, and as expected, customers will be able to do so via electronic means, he said, also pointing out that the suspension of repayments cannot result in higher amortisation instalments.

On Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Good morning, Hungary’, Mr Dömötör said regarding the proposed legislation on the containment of the coronavirus that one of the opposition’s objections that the government would be granted unlimited powers was not true. The bill clearly lays down that the extraordinary powers only serve to prevent and eliminate the epidemic and to ward off harmful economic effects, the State Secretary pointed out, adding that not even specialist physicians are able to tell for how many months the present struggle could last. This is one of the reasons why there is no time limit in the proposed legislation.

Mr Dömötör said on Monday the country could see how broad political unity is in the struggle against the epidemic. Regrettably, the opposition does not share the view that it should set party-political considerations aside for the time being, he added.

(MTI)