The Socialist party’s prime minister candidate Attila Mesterhazy on Thursday criticised President Laszlo Solyom for comments made in an interview in which he said it would have been better for the country had there been early elections after Ferenc Gyurcsany stepped down as the head of the government in April.
Mesterhazy told MTI on Thursday that early elections would have plunged the country into uncertainty for 3-4 months just at the height of the financial and economic crisis and this would have had a disastrous impact on the forint exchange rate.
Further, the president went to some length to paint a negative picture of the Socialist government without mentioning the responsibility of opposition party Fidesz in the country’s problems, said Mesterhazy.
He noted for example that Solyom had underlined the importance of the constitution in his interview published in today’s conservative weekly Heti Valasz, yet the leader of the opposition, Viktor Orban, had recently said that he did not respect the constitution.
Orban in November called for a new constitution, saying the current one was only fit for Hungary’s political transformation in the 1990s.
Further, whereas Solyom pointed to the lack of deep structural reforms in next year’s budget, he failed to support the Socialist government’s earlier attempts to implement reforms, Mesterhazy added.
“As a politician who respects the constitution, I regard it as important that the president of the republic, as the institution of national unity, symbolises unity, and for this reason the president’s statements should stand at an equal distance between the two parties,” the Socialist politician said.
Solyom told Heti Valasz that Hungary would have come off better if the parliamentary majority had opted for early elections when Ferenc Gyurcsany resigned as prime minister in 2008.
“Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai’s minority government has neither the time, the money, nor the public support to boost the economy and launch reforms,” he said.
Solyom said he expected the 2010 elections would offer a fresh start for Hungary. He confirmed that he would call the elections for the earliest possible date, most probably for April.
Can’t Solyom be impeached or something for making
such statements when as far as I understand his role
should be above politics?
Not likely:
Article 31A [Inviolability]
(1) The person of the President of the Republic is inviolable; protection from criminal prosecution shall be granted by a separate law.
(2) Should the President of the Republic violate the Constitution or any other law while in office, a motion supported by one-fifth of the Members of Parliament may propose that impeachment proceedings be initiated against the President of the Republic.
(3) A majority of two-thirds of the votes of the Members of Parliament is required to initiate impeachment proceedings. Voting shall be held by secret ballot.
(4) From passage of this resolution by the Parliament until the conclusion of the impeachment proceedings, the President of the Republic may not attend to any of the duties of his office.
(5) The Constitutional Court shall have jurisdiction in such cases.
(6) Should the Constitutional Court determine that the law was violated, it shall have the authority to remove the President of the Republic from office.