Neither the government, nor the Defence Ministry, or the ruling Socialist Party see a necessity for Defence Minister Imre Szekeres to resign over a suspected bribery case involving a business owned by, and operating under the control of, the ministry.
The Defence Ministry told MTI on Wednesday that Szekeres had suspended officers against whom the Budapest Military Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation under suspicion of bribery.
On Friday the opposition Fidesz party called upon the minister to immediately resign over that “shocking and bewildering” affair.
“The shameful conditions, chaos and corruption prevailing at the ministry indicate that the government is totally unsuitable and unworthy of performing its obligations,” Fidesz MP Zsolt Csampa said.
In response, the Defence Ministry announced that Szekeres would not resign. Instead, it will assume political responsibility for the fact that “some persons, giving priority to their own interests and breaking their oath, have violated the law,” the ministry said.
In this case, assuming political responsibility means that the minister will not leave the ministry alone but make every possible effort to prevent the repetition of such affairs, it said.
Government Spokesman Domokos Szollar said that the idea of Szekeres’s resignation had not been raised at all.
Socialist Party spokeswoman Bernadett Budai said that Szekeres had no reason to resign.
The minister initiated convening a session of Parliament’s defence and law enforcement committee on Friday.
