Novak said Jobbik only received a copy of the proposal a few hours before the meeting with the defence minister was due to begin, which was why the party has asked for a week to look it over to make sure no part of the proposal would lead to civil rights abuses.

On another subject, Novak welcomed Simicskó’s support of Jobbik’s proposal to establish a volunteer army with free basic training.

He said that under the proposal the volunteers could not be deployed in foreign missions. Jobbik also requested the defence minister to withdraw the regular army from foreign missions as well and not to deploy the troops in the future either, as their participation in those missions raises the threat of terrorism in Hungary.

The Socialist Party said it would submit its own proposal concerning the management of terrorist threats, arguing that the government’s proposal fails to provide a sufficient level of security to the people nor does it leave enough room for parliamentary control.

Party leader József Tóbiás said the government’s proposal “made it clear” that the government is only interested in gaining special powers during potential states of terrorist threat. He said his party would always support measures that strengthen national security but it would not allow Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to abuse his powers under the guise of counterterrorism measures.

LMP said it would not support granting the government the power to enforce special measures -- restricting various freedoms in the process -- in periods of high threats of terrorism without parliament’s approval.

Coleader András Schiffer said he was aware of Europe’s security challenges and that the deployment of the army may be necessary to overcome these challenges, therefore his party is ready for further talks on amending the constitution.

He said he did not understand why declaring a state of preventive defence or a state of emergency was not sufficient to manage terrorist threats. Schiffer said it was also unclear when exactly the threat of terrorism is considered high.

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MTI photo: Bruzák Noémi