Churches denounce new census law for excluding question on religion
Hungary’s Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran Churches on Wednesday expressed criticism over the recently-passed law on the 2011 census, which will exclude several questions earlier on the survey, including that on religion.
President Laszlo Solyom has refused to sign the law designed on the census and has sent it back to parliament for reconsideration. The law bans census officers from asking about the health status of respondents, including fertility or disabilities, or to inquire about their religion. The president argued that such information gives important indications of society and that the census, held once in every ten years, should be consistent in order to enable meaningful comparisons.
The churches issued a joint statement in which they express their surprise that the question on religion, which has always been on the questionnaire except under the communist years, should now be banned.
The ruling Socialist party has said it was open to including a question on disabilities, but would not support the question about people’s religious faith. “There are no services provided by the state which would require such information,” Valeria Deak Fogarasi, deputy chairwoman of the parliamentary committee for human rights, said.
Is the president allowed to refer a law back to
parliament for reasons other than it being
unconstitutional? Is he just playing politics???