Deputy speaker of parliament Koloman Brenner, of opposition Jobbik, has initiated a special meeting of parliament’s foreign affairs committee to hear Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on the situation in Belarus. Brenner told a press conference that he had submitted a draft for a committee position in which parliament calls on the government to “express support immediately and without hesitation for the freedom and independence of the people of Belarus and for repeating the elections in a free and democratic manner”. Jobbik considers civic democratic values and freedom very important, which includes holding fair elections without fraud and violence, he said.
Brenner expressed concern about the Hungarian government’s failure to make its position clear about the Belarus events. He stressed the need to maintain balanced relations with all countries but called it worrying that the Hungarian cabinet is “developing ever-closer ties with such single-party authoritarian states as Russia, China and Turkey”. Brenner emphasised that the balance of Hungary’s foreign relations should be restored as soon as possible.