“Following discussions on the amendment of the Fundamental Law by the Ministry of Defence, a state of terrorist emergency could receive an independent statutory definition in the Constitution”, the Minister of Defence announced.
István Simicskó told reporters: According to plans, in the case of a terrorist attack or a serious and direct terrorist threat, Parliament would have the power to declare a state of terrorist emergency with a two-thirds majority vote at the request of the Government, and accordingly a state of terrorist emergency could become a new, sixth so-called special statutory definition within the Constitution. If such a state of emergency is declared, the Government would receive a mandate to introduce the required emergency measures for a maximum period of 15 days. According to the Minister, this would afford the Government “sufficient, but not overly broad” room for movement to act in the interests of the security of the Hungarian people.
Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér and Minister of Defence István Simicskó announced on 24 March that the Cabinet had decided to develop a package of anti-terrorist measures. Following several rounds of five-party and expert discussions at the Ministry of Interior, Mr. Pintér submitted the Ministry’s proposal for an anti-terrorist measure package to the National Assembly on Tuesday.
In a continuation of the earlier talks, the Minister of Defence called a meeting of parliamentary party representatives for Friday to discuss possible amendments to the Fundamental Law to enable the deployment of the Hungarian Defence Force in the case of a terrorist emergency. The Minister expressed his regret that the planned five-party talks were once again not attended by the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), but said the party had also been sent a copy of the proposed amendment. The Minister of Defence said they had reviewed the objections and amendment recommendations submitted to the Ministry in recent weeks and a significant proportion of them had been duly incorporated into the proposal. The constitutional amendment bill is expected to be submitted to Parliament by the Fidesz parliamentary group sometime next week.
Mr. Simicskó declared that serving the security of the people of Hungary is also a responsibility of the opposition parties, and accordingly he hopes that the bill will receive the required support in Parliament.
The Minister said Friday’s discussions had been encouraging and successful, adding that everyone now sees the need for action against terrorism and all political parties have acknowledged the fact that the Fundamental Law must be amended accordingly.
Those present at the meeting included, amongst others, army Chief of Staff Tibor Benkő, Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács, Deputy Chairman of Fidesz Gergely Gulyás, Fidesz Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Policing Lajos Kósa, KDNP representative Imre Vejkey, LMP parliamentary group leader András Schiffer and Ádám Mirkóczki (Jobbik), who is also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and National Security. The MSZP, as in the case of the previous two meetings held at the Ministry of Defence, did not represent itself at the negotiations. The party’s Chairman József Tóbiás told Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday: the MSZP will be deciding on its standpoint with regard to the Ministry of Defence’s constitutional amendment proposal at its parliamentary group meeting on Monday and this is why they are not participating in Friday’s discussions.