Opposition parties call on justice minister to quit

Budapest, May 22 (MTI) – Opposition parties Dialogue for Hungary (PM) and the Hungarian Liberal Party (MLP) have called on Justice Minister Laszlo Trocsanyi to resign over what they called “racist remarks” about Hungarian Roma earlier this week.

Trocsanyi told Inforadio last week that Hungary had trouble taking in economic migrants as it is focused on helping 800,000 Roma catch up.

PM lawmaker Rebeka Szabo said on Friday that it was “outrageous” that Trocsanyi had depicted the Roma community as a burden on the country.

MLP said: “whoever judges Hungarians by their ethnicity has no option but to resign immediately.”

In response to calls for his resignation, Trocsanyi said he “outright rejects” the “outrageous” and “baseless” accusations against him by the opposition parties.

Trocsanyi told MTI in a statement that caring for the Roma population was a priority and a “moral obligation”.