“It is fake news that Parliament has been closed down in Hungary’, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN from Budapest on Thursday evening.

He told the reporter. “(…) I’m sorry to say that you have been engaged in spreading another piece of fake news bout Hungary, because you just said that Parliament is blocked in Hungary, which is not true. The parliament is in session. For example, this week the parliament was in session for three days”. The Minister was reacting to the fact that the reporter had previously stated that the French National Assembly, the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress are functioning, but Hungary’s parliament isn’t. “The Cabinet requested an indefinite mandate to rule by decree, and Parliament accepted this”, the CNN news anchor added. She asked Mr. Szijjártó why there was a need for this mandate and exactly what are the measures that the government could not have introduced to combat the corona virus epidemic given its large parliamentary majority.

The Minister said that in his opinion there are several pieces of fake news being spread about Hungary with relation to the new legislation. “Many media outlets are highlighting the fact that there is no time limit in the law. This is not entirely true, given the fact that the law states that it is the Parliament itself which can conclude the state of danger. I cannot imagine, to be honest, a more democratic solution for that than giving this right to the Parliament itself, which has a democratic authorisation from the people”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised. He also pointed out that similar legislation is also in force in three other member states of the European Union, namely Poland, Malta and Croatia, in addition to which there are a further four countries in which the government can prolong the state of emergency without the authorisation of parliament.  “I totally reject double standards” he declared. “Why are we again speaking about Hungary? These kinds of double standards should be left aside, especially during the current virus situation”, he stated. “The composition of Parliament is not the result of a lottery, but of elections”, he also noted, adding that it is natural that the governing parties have a majority.

“It is fake news that the cabinet has an uncontrolled and unlimited possibility to make decrees”, the Minister declared. “The law says very clearly that we can make decrees only in accordance with protecting the country, the people and the economy from the challenges related to the virus”, he added. The Hungarian Foreign Minister emphasised that the rights that have been now given to the government by Parliament are much narrower than the rights that are given, for example, to the President of France under “normal circumstances”. “So portraying this situation as if it were a threat to democracy is simply unfair, I have to be honest with you”, he said. Mr. Szijjártó explained that sixteen bills had been put before Parliament this week, which must be split into two groups. “First, there are the measures regarding the fight against the virus. There, we have the right to make decrees, as many other countries have also decided to do, because there, speed matters. On the other hand, when it comes to laws that have nothing to do with the virus situation, they go in the normal schedule in Parliament”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stressed in his interview on CNN.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)