Funding for parliamentary groups will be drastically reduced next year, Népszava reports. The amendment was passed by the Hungarian parliament over the summer.
Máté Kocsis, the group leader of the governing Fidesz party, said at a press conference back in June that under the rules in force at the time, an opposition MP would cost the state much more than a governing party politician. According to Telex‘s analysis, this is because there were seven parliamentary groups in the 2018-2022 term, but after the 2022 elections, there will be nine. In addition to the parties that previously had parliamentary groups, the liberal Momentum, and the nationalist Mi Hazánk have also entered parliament.
According to Kocsis, the fact that an opposition MP costs more to the budget than a government MP is both unfair and does not reflect the electoral will, as
the opposition coalition parties received 800,000 fewer votes in 2022 than four years earlier.
Since most of the opposition in this year’s election was elected on a single, joint list, parties that would otherwise not have the five percent needed to get in were able to form a parliamentary group.
Under the new rules, opposition groups will receive three billion forints less, and the groups of the ruling Fidesz and KDNP parties two billion forints less in the current parliamentary term.
According to opposition MPs interviewed by Népszava, the government wants to make it impossible for the opposition to function.
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