The government has proposed lifting the curfew imposed between midnight and 5am once the number of inoculations reaches 5 million, Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, told a regular press briefing. The decision regarding the curfew lies with the operative board responsible for handling the pandemic, he said. After that benchmark, further easing will be linked to incidence numbers and not inoculations, Gulyás said.
Regarding next year’s elections, Gulyás said the voters would decide whether the incumbent government will prevail or “[Democratic Coalition head] Ferenc Gyurcsány and company will return to power”. Should the latter win the elections, “there are clear rules in place to changing the constitution or laws requiring a two-third majority, even if there are many in Gyurcsány’s circle who would like to change that.”
On another topic, Gulyás said he had met mayors of Budapest districts and county seats on Tuesday, “who proposed countless changes and arguments” against a Fidesz proposal on selling rental apartments owned by local councils for the use of vulnerable citizens. The proposal is in line with the government’s aim to “make people owners rather than renters in their own country”, Gulyás said. While arguments against the proposal have their merit in the case of definite term leases, leases for indefinite terms is “basically a form of reduced ownership as it can be inherited and sold”. Transforming those rentals into ownerships would be a “clearer situation with better opportunities to maintain or utilise the property”, he said.
Regarding Hungary’s veto of a European Union statement on the conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, Gulyás said Hungary stood by Israel’s right to defend itself and found it unacceptable to handle Israel and a terrorist group as equals.
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