LMP to turn to supreme court over rejected referendum drive on battery plants

Maria Szendefy said that the proposed referendum question was: “Do you agree that battery plants in Hungary should not be permitted if their production capacity increased the total performance of battery plants in the country to a level exceeding the total performance of such plants on December 31, 2023?”

Szendefy accused the NVB of making a political decision, insisting that the rejection came about “practically with the votes of the ruling party delegates”.

NVB’s reasoning that retroactive legislation is prohibited is “unacceptable”, she said.

“We didn’t say we would shut down everything on December 31, 2023. We would not allow expanding capacities beyond that date,” she said.

She accused NVB of trying to protect the government’s stance on the issue, “but the body is not supposed to form an opinion on battery plants when assessing a referendum initiative”.

“Let’s leave it to the people, who, if given the opportunity, will be able to say whether they want to sell out arable land and the country’s water resources, and whether they want to see tens of thousands of foreign guest workers move to medium-sized towns,” she said.