Fidesz: Parliament scheduled to debate constitutional amendment in 2 weeks’ time

Budapest, April 24 (MTI) – The ruling Fidesz party will next week submit to parliament its constitutional amendment bill designed to allow the Hungarian authorities scope to handle a potential terrorist threat so it can be debated in two weeks’ time, a Fidesz official said on Sunday.

Gergely Gulyás, deputy speaker of parliament in charge of legislative affairs, told a news conference that parliament was already in the process of debating a draft package of law amendments submitted by the interior minister which aims to make the authorities more effective in detecting a potential terror threat.

It is necessary to change the constitution in parallel in order to allow the deployment of the military in case the police have insufficient forces to handle a significant and direct terrorist threat, Gulyás said. He said he was hopeful that the opposition Socialist Party, which has so far boycotted multi-party talks, as well as the two other parliamentary parties, would support the amendment in the interest of the country’s security. He berated the Socialists for their “irresponsibility” in refusing to take part in the talks. Gulyás also insisted that ongoing five-party constitutional amendment talks were “constructive”.

The cabinet will plough more money towards law enforcement as well as secret and counter-terrorism services. Also a counter-terrorism centre will be established in order to aggregate all information which is relevant to the authorities in tackling organised crime and terrorism, he said.