Hungary’s House Speaker has said disciplinary rules in parliament may be stepped up in the wake of this week’s demonstrations over the amendments to overtime regulations.
The move comes after the opposition protested against the parliament vote to raise the upper threshold for annual overtime from 250 to 400 hours. During the raucous, the opposition blocked the house speaker’s dais and obstructed proceedings with loud whistling and jeering in an attempt to thwart the vote.
László Kövér told Inforadio that they are looking into making house disciplinary rules stricter as those in effect “do not seem to be a strong enough deterrent”. He said that the opposition had resorted to “mindless disorderly conduct verging on anarchy as a standard tactic”.
The speaker added that what happened in the assembly chamber was in no way different from the demonstrations outside Parliament, where protesters clashed with police on Wednesday and Thursday night. During the protests, nine police officers were injured and at least one person taken into custody,
Kövér has proposed fines of 400,000-600,000 HUF (1,235-1,850 EUR) to be paid by Socialist lawmakers Bertelan Tóth, Ildikó Borbély Bangó, Tamás Harangozó, Ágnes Kunhalmi, Sándor Szabó and Bence Tordai (Párbeszéd), and László Varju (Democratic Coalition). The speaker’s proposal must be approved by the Parliament.