DK to turn to EC over Kuria head nomination

Sandor Ronai told an online press conference on Facebook that “after the occupation of the chief prosecutor’s office, the Orban government is trying to have Zsolt Andras Varga, Peter Polt’s right-hand man, to head the Kuria”.

“Neither we, nor Europe should watch without intervention the Orban government violating all princples of the rule of law and the separation of the branches of power, trying to make a Fidesz prosecutor get power over the supreme court,” he said.

He said the EC had the right to call on the Hungarian government to “suspend an appointment which is in the style of a party-state”.

The party will also inform the Venice Commission about the developments, he added.

Ronai said Varga had “a thousand ties to Peter Polt and Fidesz” and he had already been “a part of the Orban regime when, during its first term in government, the prosecutor’s office let Fidesz criminals run free”. Varga was nominated by President Janos Ader on Monday, to succeed Peter Darak effective Jan. 1, 2021. Parliament’s judiciary committee approved his nomination on Thursday, while the National Council of the Judiciary (OBT) rejected his nomination the next day.