Gergely Bárándy told a press conference that the working group will aim to end corruption by forcing the government to ensure access to information of public interest. He said the party’s reason for setting up the working group was that the embezzlement of public funds “has become a national issue”.

The government is constantly submitting bills to parliament with the sole purpose of keeping the details of spending public money secret. He said corruption cases should normally be investigated by the prosecutor’s office, which has not launched any probes into government spending.

Responding to a question, Bárándy said the working group will “most definitely” look into the contracts on the planned upgrade of the Paks nuclear power station, the business dealings of energy trader MET as well as spending by the central bank. Ruling Fidesz commented on Bárándy’s presser saying that the Socialist Party itself was “mired in corruption”.

Fidesz said in a statement that Gábor Simon, the Socialist Party’s former deputy leader was recently indicted on fraud charges after it was discovered that he had held hundreds of millions of forints worth of undeclared assets on secret bank accounts.

Fidesz also noted that former Socialist defence minister Ferenc Juhász was found guilty of misappropriation of funds and accused former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány of “shamelessly stuffing his pockets” with money from EU contracts.

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MTI photo: Koszticsák Szilárd