The head of parliament’s sustainable development committee, an opposition LMP lawmaker, has accused the government of “systematically concealing all essential information about battery plants and openly threatening anyone who talks about the reality”. László Lóránt Keresztes told a press conference that the interior ministry had fired a water management official for highlighting the dangers linked to the water demands of a battery plant to be built in Debrecen, in north-east Hungary. The LMP politician insisted that assessment studies concerning battery plants’ water needs had been “changed and suppressed” and important expert opinions classified. Keresztes also said the planned Debrecen plant’s projected water and electricity demands had not been made public. He said LMP regarded the awarding of the plant’s permit “unfounded” and the party would challenge it.