Special session of parliament: Ruling Fidesz party and Christian Democrats stayed away

After a special session of parliament convened by the opposition to debate the situation of tens of thousands of Hungarians who still hold loans borrowed in foreign currency failed to go ahead on Monday because Fidesz and its Christian Democrats ally stayed away, opposition parties condemned the ruling alliance for refusing to help the troubled loan-holders.

“By staying away, the government declared that they do not want to help foreign-currency loan-holders,” LMP co-leader Bernadett Szél told a news conference.

Ákos Hadházy, the party’s other co-leader, accused the Fidesz parliamentary group of “laziness, insensitivity — and probably cowardice too”. “The governing parties have admitted taking away a thousand billion forints of extra profits that banks made on foreign currency lending but they did not help the indebted,” he added.

Dániel Z Kárpát, deputy leader of the Jobbik party, told a separate news conference that negotiations must be launched with foreign-currency creditors with a view to converting loans into forints at the exchange rate at which they were taken out. Only then should their damages be discussed, he added.