Hungary should have a debate about the introduction of the death penalty, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, echoing the radical nationalist Jobbik party whose popularity has surged at the expense of Orban’s Fidesz.
Hungary should “keep the death penalty on the agenda” as life sentences and the introduction of a “three-strikes” rule are proving to be insufficient deterrents, Orban told a news conference on Tuesday. He was responding to a question about the April 22 murder of a tobacco shop saleswoman, which local media covered extensively.
Orban’s embrace of a debate about capital punishment, which is illegal in the 28-member European Union, is the latest move embracing some of Jobbik’s agenda to arrest its momentum, according to analyst Attila Juhasz of Political Capital. The premier has also advocated the use of the military to control immigration and denounced what he described as attempts by the EU’s executive in Brussels to “colonize” Hungary.
“These sorts of moves are counter-productive because they only legitimize Jobbik’s agenda for the mainstream,” Juhasz, a Budapest-based analyst at the research institute, said by phone. “Orban is latching on to an issue most Hungarians may support and hoping that this will boost his party’s popularity.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-28/hungary-s-orban-revives-debate-on-death-penalty-after-murder...
Nothing new here: Orban continues to be a massive a**hole, pandering to the Far-Right.
