Parliamentary Speaker Katalin Szili, who is also the Socialist Party’s candidate for mayor of Pecs in south Hungary is strongly against the NATO radar planned for nearby Tubes Hill, a local Socialist official told MTI on Wednesday.
Local Socialist board leader Laszlo Kocsi responded to remarks made by representatives of the main opposition Fidesz party, who had said earlier in the day that “still there is a danger that the Socialist government will implement that military project on Tubes Hill. Socialist politicians have not abandoned the idea of construction.”
Fidesz MP Erik Banki and Zsolt Pava, Fidesz’s candidate for mayor of Pecs, also said that Socialist deputies were blocking a motion to restore the city’s right to veto the military project if it was deemed harmful to local interests.
The execution of plans to construct the radar station on Tubes Hill was suspended by a court ruling in March last year. Early in May, dozens of NGOs, private individuals and the Pecs municipal council filed lawsuits against the defence ministry with the aim of stopping the radar from being built.
Tubes is the second site after nearby Zengo peak to be contested by greens as the location of the planned radar facility, which defence officials have said is essential for Hungary’s security.
