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Opposition parties warn of residency bond ‘national security risks’
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Budapest, September 6 (MTI) – Opposition parties on Tuesday said the country’s residency bond scheme carried risks after a newspaper report suggesting a foreign criminal had purchased a bond allowing residency in Hungary.
The opposition Jobbik party has called on the government to suspend the sale of residency bonds, citing risks to national security.
In addition, foreigners who have already received residency permits should have to pass stricter security clearance than previously, Jobbik lawmaker Gábor Staudt told a news conference on Tuesday.
Commenting on a report in Tuesday’s edition of Magyar Nemzet claiming that a Russian national, a convicted criminal, had bought residency bonds, Staudt said the bonds are not only linked with graft suspects but there is also a risk that foreign criminals are accessing Hungary and other member states of the European Union.
Much of the 100 billion forints (EUR 323m) that has accrued via the sale of residency bonds has gone off-shore, Staudt insisted, adding that the Hungarian economy has not benefited from the scheme.
The Jobbik politician claimed that the scheme was a “bonanza” for “everyone who’s in it”. “It is only the Hungarian state and the taxpayer who aren’t …”
The Socialists will propose a bill to parliament on abandoning the residency bonds scheme and obliging the firms marketing such bonds to give an account of their dealings before parliament’s economy committee. Parliamentary group leader Bertalan Tóth also at a news conference on Tuesday that the bill will contain a 75 percent tax on related revenues of such firms.