Fidesz has been itching to be rid of Ferenc Gyurcsány ever since he became prime minister back in 2004, not to mention since the lies speech. As a portfolio.hu piece pointed out, with warmer relations with the Free Democrats of late, numerically it is possible:
There are currently 385 MPs in the 386-seat Parliament. (An MSZP faction member, János Szántó passed away in June and his position has not been filled in yet.) However, Gyula Horn and László Toller will certainly not participate in the vote. (Toller was in a car accident and has been in a coma for over two years now.) This means a total of 383 MPs could vote and if every one of them is present, Fidesz needs 192 ‘yes’ for the dissolution of Parliament. In this case, elections must be held within three months.
As the piece points out, the incapacity of three Socialist MPs (ill health, coma and death) make the Socialists more vulnerable, although even then Fidesz would need to unite nearly the entire opposition, which includes asking the Free Dems and Democratic Forum to fall on their own swords, as they are unlikely to make it into parliament if an election was held soon, so don’t expect them to support this idea. Getting all of the bickering opposition parties together into a “government of experts” power-sharing deal? The chances are slim, but more probable than this plan.
Isn’t having an MP in a coma for 2 years a bit too much the people he represents? How does he perform his duties? Shouldn’t there have been a byelection by now? Anybody know enough about parliamentary procedures in Hungary to be able to answer these questions?
JoeBones, Take a look at the last paragraph of this article for part of the explanation: http://www.politics.hu/20071115/comatose-mp-receives-salary-and-expense-reimbursements
Thank you Zoltán for the link. Wow, the opposition don’t want to look heartless by calling for his seat to be removed while he is indefinately incapacitated! That’s the first time I’ve heard about opposing parties in Hungary being nice to each other. It’s a shame his constituents won’t actually have a representative for a while then (which I was always under the, maybe mistaken, impression are what MPs are for).
Seems to me that the opposition doesn’t want to rock the gravy train too much just in case one day one of their own finds themselves unable to claim their pay-check due to being incapacitated.
I don’t know what happens in other EU countries in a case like this (but will do soon due to the coma of Maltese MP Karl Chircop). And what happens when the electorate becomes comatose instead? Anyone know?