Hungary's parliamentary parties agree on need to combat terrorism

All of Hungary's political parties represented in parliament agreed on Wednesday that combating terrorism was a national and common cause.

However, the meeting of the heads of the various parliamentary parties saw differences in how to take action.

Representing the ruling Fidesz Party, Antal Rogan said after the meeting that the European Union (EU) was unable to protect its members so they had to work together to design a joint preventive strategy. Political correctness is insufficient, Rogan added.

Rogan proposed offering special protections to certain communal (religious) symbols and values. Respecting personal opinions was insufficient, he underlined.

He also called for giving law enforcement bodies greater authority in preventing people from entering Hungary and in ejecting them from the country.

Socialist MSZP Party leader Jozsef Tobias called on the secret services to brief parliament's national security committee on its efforts to combat terrorism and to tell parliament have it could help them.

He also proposed establishing a committee to design a long term plan to prevent terrorism. Tobias said his party had hoped for strategic talks, not merely technical ones, but in the absence of the prime minister and any cabinet representative this was not possible.

Peter Harrach, speaking for the tiny Christian Democrat People's Party (KDNP) declared that freedom of speech and freedom of the press did not give anyone the right to debase any religion. He objected to the committee's decision not to discuss immigration.

The far right Jobbik Party's chief Gabor Vona told the media he wanted an analysis of whether there was any connection between immigration and terrorism. He also called for reestablishing a border police.

The green LMP Party was represented by Andras Schiffer, the party's co-chair. Schiffer said the parties had to agree on whether they were focusing on preventing terrorism or looking at immigration, because the two were not the same but mixing them up acted to incite residents.

Schiffer argued that a world order based on free trade was behind the terrorism problem. He called on the EU to develop a strategy to eliminate global disequilibrium on long term. However, he said, his party would not agree to restricting the liberties of Hungarians under the guise of combating terrorism.

Rogan, summing up, said that parliament's national security and defense committees would hold a joint meeting next week to which they planned to invite the police, the secret service, and the Anti-terrorism Center. The heads of the various parliamentary parties will also meet again on the matter, he added.

He acknowledged that immigration had not been discussed at the request of the Socialists although the Fidesz Party is convinced that "one root cause of the problem is immigration." Endit