Jobbik leader Gábor Vona said in the session that Fidesz’s migration policy had “collapsed” and that the ruling party was incapable of protecting Hungary.

The radical nationalist leader cited deputy state secretary Kristóf Altusz as saying in an interview to a Maltese newspaper that Hungary had taken in some 1,300 refugees last year and accused the government of having lied for the past three years.

In his rebuttal, Csaba Dömötör, state secretary at the prime minister’s cabinet, said Hungary had not taken in a single migrant and any report that says otherwise is “fake news”.

Green opposition LMP’s Bernadett Szél called on the ruling parties to account for their absence from the session. She also called on Speaker of Parliament László Kövér to comment on the insistence of Szilárd Németh, the Fidesz deputy head of parliament’s national security committee, that she constitutes a national security risk.

Fidesz group leader Gergely Gulyás said the real reason the opposition had called today’s parliamentary session was to “score points” with their voters.

On the topic of migration, he said the Hungarian government was among the first European governments to declare that it would not take in a single migrant.

It resisted the European Union’s migrant quota scheme and built a fence on Hungary’s border, he added.

The opposition Democratic Coalition also boycotted the session saying that Fidesz should be replaced rather than debated.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Bruzák Noémi