November 15th, 2016
A pro-government pundit dismisses as a stunt Jobbik’s plan to submit the somewhat revised constitutional amendments it rejected last week in Parliament. A liberal columnist thinks Jobbik’s move will give Fidesz a headache.
On Saturday, Magyar Nemzet reported that Jobbik planned to resubmit the constitutional amendment on the settlement of non-EU immigrants which Parliament failed to pass last week (see BudaPost November 10). According to Magyar Nemzet’s unnamed sources, Jobbik would add to the original Fidesz version the abolition of the residency bonds programme, which offers permanent Hungarian residence to wealthy foreign investors (see BudaPost October 21). Since then, Jobbik has confirmed those reports, while Fidesz politicians say they will prevent the motion from being be put on the agenda.
Jobbik is motivated by a drive to attack PM Orbán whatever the cost, rather than by a wish to serve the national interest, Ottó Gajdics writes in Magyar Idők. The pro-government columnist speculates that the decision of Jobbik MPs not to support the original constitutional amendment tabled by Fidesz could be a harbinger of cooperation between the radical right-wing party and the Left. By ‘hysterically’ attacking Fidesz, Jobbik leader Gábor Vona wants to divert attention from his unsuccessful efforts to rebrand Jobbik as a moderate centrist party, Gajdics believes. He concludes by suggesting that Jobbik’s constituency is unlikely to be satisfied by Gábor Vona’s tactical manoeuvres.
444’s Zsolt Sarkadi thinks that Jobbik’s move to resubmit the constitutional amendments will cause Fidesz MPs quite a headache. The liberal commentator thinks that government MPs will feel at a loss by rejecting the revised amendments, as Fidesz luminaries have already announced that they are considering the abolition of the residency bond programme anyway.
Tags: constitution, EU, immigration, Jobbik, quotas
