Updated: No New Battery Factories In Hungary? National Referendum Initiative Submitted By LMP
- 27 Jan 2023 9:39 AM
- Hungary Matters
Opposition LMP has initiated a referendum to make setting up battery plants conditional on local citizens’ consent.
László Lóránt Keresztes, the head of parliament’s sustainable development committee, held a press conference after submitting the necessary documents at the National Election Office.
Protecting natural treasures and promoting national economic independence are key at a time of crises, he said.
The government’s decision to “turn Hungary into a battery manufacturing power” through political decisions goes contrary to those goals, he said.
Battery manufacturing is also water and energy consuming at a time when those resources are in short supply in the country, he said.
Keresztes insisted the government was not handling the environmental issues the battery plants have presented, and “took foreign investors’ side” without gauging locals’ views on the matter.
Battery Plants Health Risk in N Hungary
A battery plant near Komárom, in northern Hungary, might be endangering citizens’ health as the cumulative effect of the plant’s multiple units on the environment has not been tested, opposition LMP said after a public hearing at City Hall.
Party spokesman József Gál told a press conference that the drinking water supply of the city would not be able to cover the needs of the plants.
The use of water from spring-water wells around nearby Tata are already depleting karst water in the area, he said. Humidity in the air around the plants might concentrate pollution there, he added.
Gál slammed the Fidesz mayor of Komárom, Attila Molnár, for not answering questions regarding the battery plant. LMP has initiated a referendum to make new battery plants conditional on residents’ consent, he noted.
At the public hearing, which was originally on the city budget, Molnár called the dispute on the plant expansion “political profiteering”.
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