At a consultation session arranged in Budapest on the draft Fundamental Law, Parliamentary Minister of State Bence Rétvári said that the Fundamental Law will create a fundamentally new standard in family values and in protection of the interests of the future generation: the young of today. The new fundamental law will express fundamental values, and will speak out in defence of life, the family and marriage.

The Minister of State welcomes the fact that young people are influencing public life, and are able to express their opinions. He called the adoption of the Fundamental Law important because it would also enable Hungary to safeguard its financial independence. One of the present government’s main problems is that debt has grown to such appalling proportions, increasing over the last eight years to two and a half times its previous level. If it were not for this fact, it would have been possible to spend seven and a half times as much on new housing, and significantly reduce personal income tax.

In his statement he said that the results of the questionnaires which had been sent out on the Fundamental Law would be taken into account, the suggestions received would be made public, and on the basis of these amending motions would be submitted to Parliament by the governing parties. With regard to the refusal of the Socialists to take part in drafting the Fundamental Law, he said that it is an incomprehensible contortion of logic for someone to claim that drafting a fundamental law on the basis of a two-thirds majority lacks legitimacy, and then to claim that impromptu ‘parliament events’ or ‘partial national assemblies’ have the required legitimacy.

The task of a member of Parliament is not only to voice his or her own opinion, but also to speak for the people he or she represents. He said that the opposition MSZP and LMP parties have effectively excluded the1.3 million people who voted for them from the process of drafting the Fundamental Law.

In reply to those who say that the time allowed for drafting the Fundamental Law is too short, he said that the German constitution was created within eight months, and the French constitution within six months (the Japanese constitution was adopted in a week in exceptional circumstances, but he does not see this as a model to follow). In Hungary numerous plans have emerged over the last twenty years, he said.

(kormany.hu)