For now, there is no need to introduce an emergency legal order as healthcare is ready to face the second wave of the epidemic and nearly two million respondents of the national consultation survey said Hungary must remain up and running, the group leader of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party told public media, adding that Hungarians still cannot count on the left.
Mate Kocsis explained on public radio that healthcare was prepared for the second wave of the epidemic both in terms of equipment and legal regulations. The national consultation revealed that Hungarians want the country to remain up and running, hence defence must be organised in a way it doesn’t hinder the functioning of the country or the performance of the economy. If everyone follows all the rules, the defence, as it once did, will succeed again, he said.
This time no laws need amendment because of healthcare’s pandemic response, so parliament – where sittings follow the usual order – can focus on protecting the economy and preserving jobs, he emphasized. He added that in the pre-epidemic period, “the country was doing really well,” however, as a result of the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus, this “could all fall apart,” which places huge responsibility on legislature.
Hungarians cannot count on the left in the fight against the epidemic, Mate Kocsis said, as they show no interest whatsoever in the state of the epidemiological defence, or what remains to be done and whether consensus can be reached, he added. Instead, they make accusations and unfounded lies and share dangerous rumours that are particularly harmful for the defence, he said.
The left still hasn’t realised that people can die if they keep misinforming people about the epidemic, Mr Kocsis stressed. In the spring, they proved their inability to cooperate as they failed to support both the extension of the emergency and Hungary’s anti-coronavirus law, and they tried to discredit health workers with fake videos and ran smear campaigns against Hungary abroad, the politician said.
Fidesz’s group leader said he believes the Democratic Coalition’s (DK) proposal to introduce free testing is nothing but a political bluff and a tool to create fake news. Hungary’s testing regime follows the protocol of the World Health Organization (WHO) and is crystal clear: the tests are free of charge on medical prescriptions, but the government has established an official price in terms of private coronavirus tests so that no one can profit from them, he stressed.
