"The fact that those who have so far attacked child protection measures are now presenting themselves as apostles of child protection may give us the opportunity to create a consensus between the left and the right on these issues, which have been divisive so far." - stated Gergely Gulyás on today's Kormányinfo, who also revealed that before the scandal broke out, he received a message from Judit Varga's ex-husband, Péter Magyar, that if he loses his state jobs, there will be consequences.
"The national government has always, and more than anyone else, supported families, introduced chocolate, baby support, provided tax relief to families with children, and gave tax exemptions to those who have four children. At the same time, it adopted Europe's strictest child protection law and created a separate registry for those who commit pedophile crimes," Gergely Gulyás listed.
The minister added:
President Katalin Novák did the most for family policy in the recent period, and Justice Minister Judit Varga also played a major role in tightening the BTK and passing the Family Protection Act.
Gergely Gulyás emphasized that
the President of the Republic and Judit Varga took responsibility in an exemplary manner.
"And the most important thing for the government is to look to the future, which is why the Prime Minister submitted an amendment to the Basic Law after the outbreak of the pardon case so that there would be no pardon in the case of pedophile crimes," said the minister.
The government tightens the appointment of the heads of child protection institutions and reviews the child protection legislation and, where possible, reasonable strictures are expected
- announced the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office on Friday in Budapest, in the Government Information.
Gergely Gulyás reminded that the Prime Minister submitted a constitutional amendment according to which there is no pardon for intentional crimes committed against minors.
As he said, at the last government meeting, it was discussed that the criteria for appointing the head of child protection institutions should be much stricter. He immediately added that the same government had already tightened the criteria in 2017.
"We consider it important that a psychological examination, an extended reliability examination and an environmental study be available before the appointment, and only then should it be possible to appoint someone. And, of course, the child protection legislation must also be reviewed, and wherever possible, we support reasonable tightening," said Gergely Gulyás.
The minister elaborated on this: "we are happy that something good can be found in negative, bad cases. The fact that those who have so far attacked child protection measures now present themselves as the apostles of child protection,
perhaps it gives us the opportunity to create a consensus between the left and the right on these issues, which have been divisive so far."
It was also discussed that Ferenc Gyurcsány said in an interview the other day that he did accept the consequences for the events of 2006, to which Gergely Gulyás responded,
the former prime minister did not accept any responsibility.
In response to a question, Gulyás said:
The government has no opinion on the involvement of Zoltán Balog and the internal affairs of the Reformed Church
According to the minister, Katalin Novák and Judith Varga were defamed in an article
András Arató must clearly resign as head of Klubrádió
and hopes that until this happens, no one will set foot there, neither as an employee nor as a guest.
In relation to the pardon case, Judit Varga said about the resignation of the former Minister of Justice: in the past 25 years, every minister has countersigned the pardon decisions of the given head of state, regardless of whether it is any public president. In any case, Gulyás would not shy away from publicizing pardon cases.
Regarding the fact that Momentumos András Fekete-Győr, who was sentenced to prison in the second degree, will not resign, he said: all this only supports the previous position of Fidesz faction leader Máté Kocsis, according to which mistakes on the right have consequences, but on the left neither do serious crimes.
He answered with a firm no that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán knew about the pardon decision earlier.
The prime minister only learned about the incident from the press, Gergely Gulyás said.
I haven't spoken to Péter Magyar for months - the minister said in response to a question. At the same time, Gulyás also revealed that
he knew what Magyar was up to, because he wrote it to him. When asked if he tried to stop him, the minister said no and he doesn't like being threatened. That doesn't fit into friendship.
He explained:
weeks before the scandal broke out, he received a message from Magyar that if he lost his state jobs, there would be consequences. To this, Gulyás said that he does not like being threatened.
He added: it fills him with the greatest sadness that Péter Magyar has now found himself on the same platform, he is in Hungarian public life thanks to the favor and, in the worst case, even his bread and butter, against whom he previously fought together. As he said, he does not know whether someone is behind Magyar.
When asked if there will be an Orbán-Zelensky meeting, he said: they still take the position that they would only support a meeting if it makes sense. The Hungarian government has specific ideas, if there is a willingness to accept them on the other side, the meeting can be considered.
Featured image: Prime Minister Gergely Gulyás and Government Spokesperson Alexandra Szentkirályi at the Government Info press conference in the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office building on February 16, 2024. (Photo: MTI/Noémi Bruzák)
