Varju called on Momentum not to boycott the primaries and let voters decide on the joint opposition candidates in the city and towns in question. In 2019, Fidesz was defeated in Budapest and a number of other cities precisely because the opposition fielded joints candidates everywhere, Varju said.

Meanwhile, LMP Calls for Guarantee for Hungary's GMO-Free Status

The green LMP party has submitted a political statement to parliament calling for a guarantee of Hungary’s GMO-free status.

Mária Szendefy, a member of the party’s national board, said genetic modification was a brutal intervention in the order of nature, the long-term effects of which were not yet known.

Genetically modified crops must not be allowed in the European Union and Hungary’s GMO-free status must be guaranteed, she added.

Szendefy said her party had submitted a political statement on the issue to parliament but it was rejected by the Fidesz majority of the relevant parliamentary committee, so they were turning to the minister of agriculture, saying that Hungary’s food safety and food sovereignty were at stake.

She noted that a united stance was important as the European Parliament had already approved significant exemptions in its new GMO regulation, allowing the release of such crops without a prior risk assessment, while GMO produce could be marketed without labelling or monitoring.

Kocsis: Parlt CTTEE to Investigate Momentum MP's Statement

The Fidesz parliamentary group leader has slammed Momentum MP Miklós Hajnal for lobbying in Brussels “against the interests of his country” and “boasting” about it, saying that parliament’s European affairs committee should put the matter on its agenda as soon as possible and hold an extraordinary meeting.

Kocsis said on social media on Saturday that it was “outrageous” that Hajnal had “openly and proudly” attempted to prevent Hungary from receiving EU funds and to tie it up in legal procedures.

“Whereas it’s not out of the ordinary for a Hungarian left-wing politician to lobby abroad against the interests of his country, the Momentum politician’s boasts are truly outrageous,” he said, adding that Hajnal’s actions were political and an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty. He added that the opposition had been “paid in dollars by foreign speculators” in the past.

Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch earlier proposed holding an extraordinary meeting of the European affairs committee with a view to investigating “political influence manoeuvres” by the “dollar left”.

He said the Momentum board member had recently told commercial television channel ATV that party MEPs Anna Donath and Katalin Cseh had played a major role in the European Union’s rule-of-law and infringement proceedings against Hungary, resulting in funds being withheld from Hungary.

Deutsch said the Momentum MEPs had betrayed their electorate and had seriously harmed millions of Hungarians.

He insisted that an elected representative “must act in the interest of his country and its citizens under all circumstances”.
 

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