The amendment to the Fundamental Law passed by Parliament on Tuesday and the counter-terrorism package of the Ministry of Interior serve the everyday security of the Hungarian people, State Secretary for Government Communication Bence Tuzson said after the adoption of the decisions by Parliament.
The State Secretary takes the view that, in the wake of the legislative amendments, the police and the agencies of internal security will be given the funds and support units which will render them capable of rising to the challenges of terrorism, while the amendment of the Fundamental Law and the related defence legislation will permit the deployment of the defence forces in Hungary in the event of a threat of terrorism.
He stressed: they find it regrettable that there were Members of Parliament and political parties which did not support these two legislative packages. In his view, „a peculiar coalition has been formed” under the direction of Ferenc Gyurcsány in the case of the legislative package concerning internal affairs, while the socialists, too, joined this group in the case of the defence-related legislative package when they decided not to support the everyday security of the people.
He described the Members of Parliament who voted against the amendments as irresponsible as, in his view, Members of Parliament should agree on fundamental issues such as the security of Hungary. In reference to the Istanbul bomb attacks on Tuesday, he added: these are genuine threats, and one must also see clearly that they cannot be separated from the issue of illegal immigration, given that as part of this process, terrorists, too, are arriving in the territory of the European Union.
The State Secretary pointed out: it is an important task and a joint responsibility to draw the necessary conclusions from the terrorist attacks that occurred in Europe and elsewhere, and to achieve that nothing of the kind should ever happen in Hungary.
Defence Minister István Simicskó highlighted: they sincerely hope that Hungary will not be the scene of terrorist attacks. However, should this be the case, the duly prepared forces of the Hungarian military are available to guarantee the security of the Hungarian people.
The Minister stressed: Parliament passed the amendment of the Fundamental Law with a 77 per cent majority, and he said thanks to the Members of Parliament who supported its passage. At the same time, he described the fact that the socialists did not vote for the legislative package and did not attend the five-party consultations before the passage of the amendments as „sad”. In answer to a question, he said: in the interest of improving cooperation, the defence forces will hold a joint exercise with the police and the Counter Terrorism Centre which will result in more effective action for the event of a terrorist attack.
Károly Kontrát, Minister of State at the Ministry of Interior stressed: the security of the Hungarian people will substantially increase with the entry into force of the counter-terrorism legislative package. The Minister of State said thanks to the parliamentary parties for having passed the proposal with a 95 per cent majority. He reiterated: in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, it has become evident that terrorism can also be linked to immigration. He added: following this, the Government submitted a legislative package which does not in any way seek to obtain any more power for the authorities, the law enforcement agencies and the Counter Terrorism Centre than that which is available to their counterparts in Western-Europe.
As part of the approved legislative package, he made specific mention of the establishment of the Counter-Terrorism Information and Criminal Analysis Centre with a staff of 130 to be set up on the foundations of the Counter-Organised Crime Coordination Centre. The new centre will have the information and knowledge which will enable it to filter out and to prevent acts suspected of terrorism, he added.
In response to the claim that news reports described the establishment of the new Centre as a struggle between János Lázár, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, and Interior Minister Sándor Pintér, Mr Kontrát said: there was no struggle. There is only one struggle here, the fight against terrorism to which the Government is fully committed. In answer to a question relating to the flow of intelligence between the new Centre and the secret services, he added: the approved solution does not in any way compromise the efficiency of operations. Mr Tuzson highlighted in this context: the operation of the new counter-terrorism centre is about gathering together and analysing all the information in order to draw the necessary conclusions and to take action.
Parliament amended the Fundamental Law on Tuesday by supplementing the rules relating to special legal order with the category of state of terrorism threat, and passed the counter-terrorism package of the Ministry of Interior which regulates the restriction of encrypted telephone services and creates the Counter-Terrorism Information and Criminal Analysis Centre.