One of the most controversial decisions concerning the restructuring of the government has been the scrapping of the Environment Ministry. Although the environment is undoubtedly one of the crucial issues of the 21st century, in future it will be overseen by a state secretary in the Rural Development Ministry.

The office will be held by Zoltán Illés (Fidesz), who has made a name for himself in his party as an environmental politician in recent years. Although Illés claims that environment policy has been “upgraded” in the new structure, the opposite can be feared given that it will now have its home in the not particularly significant Rural Development Ministry and Fidesz’s lack of enthusiasm for the issue in the past.
The outgoing environment minister Imre Szabó (MSZP) expressed his regret at the closure of the environment ministry. Far-right party Jobbik protested against the restructuring with two of its future MPs in front of the  Environment Ministry. The designated deputy Jobbik caucus chairman Tamás Hegedûs said that by pairing agriculture and the environment “it is possible that green considerations will regularly be sidelined”. Hungary has been fighting in Brussels for years to maintain the ban on the cultivation of genetically modified crops.
Oddly, the Politics Can Be Different party (LMP), which refers to itself as an “green party” only wrote one half sentence objecting to the scrapping of the ministry in the middle of a general statement on the new government.

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