At a news conference held at a popular market hall in Budapest, where volunteers collected signatures, Vágó, who is secretary of the Anti-Corruption Alliance, said the public prosecutor, Péter Polt, would “avert his eyes from corruption cases in vain”.

Extending the statute of limitation would give the chance to punish people who commit corruption crimes.
The referendum question is the following: “Do you agree that the punishability of corruption crimes should elapse at least twelve years after they were committed?”

Fully 120,000 valid signatures must be collected by Jan. 13 in order to qualif y for holding a referendum. Vágó said the popular vote would show that it is possible to clean up public life.

Moreover, the extension of the statute of limitations would lead to a government determined to eliminate corruption, he insisted.

Other politicians who addressed the event included representatives from the Együtt, LMP, Dialogue and Socialist parties. Also present was a representative of the Momentum movement.

The National Election Committee gave the go-ahead for the plebiscite on April 10. The collection of signatures was able to proceed today after the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, recently upheld the decision of the committee following an appeal against it.

Fidesz’s incoming parliamentary group leader, Gergely Gulyás, told MTI in reaction that the ruling party regarded extending the statute of limitations as reasonable, and there was no need to collect signatures for a referendum on the subject.

He said if it were truly the case that the opposition parties wanted to extend the statute of limitations for corruption crimes rather than simply mounting a political campaign, then all they would have to do is submit the proposal to parliament and Fidesz would support it.

The Fidesz lawmaker added that a referendum could not be held in the current parliamentary cycle.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.