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BUDAPEST - Hungary's governing Fidesz party has submitted a bill to parliament that would hold the opposition Socialists accountable for crimes committed by the former communist party before 1989.
"The Hungarian state cannot be based on the sins of the communist regime," according to the bill put forward late Sunday, according to national news agency MTI.
"Due to the personal continuity binding the leadership of the old and the new party," the Socialists (MSZP) should be held accountable for the actions of the former communist regime, which has until now escaped scrutiny, it added.
The bill, which will be included in the constitution if passed, describes the former communist party - the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) - and its successors as "criminal organisations."
When the country's new constitution takes effect on January 1, "there will be an opportunity to do justice," it says.
The bill, which triggered condemnation Monday from the MSZMP, is likely to be adopted in parliament where Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz has a two-thirds majority.
According to the text, the communist leaders were responsible "for having maintained and run the oppressive regime, violated the law and betrayed the nation."
It said their crimes included the suppression of a burgeoning democracy at the end of World War II with Soviet support, the killing and torturing of citizens, discrimination based on origins or political beliefs, illegal monitoring of private lives, and the crushing of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising.
The document also described the MSZP "as the heir of illegally accumulated wealth, as the beneficiary of illegitimate spoils obtained during the dictatorship or the transition (to democracy)."
The Socialist party was created in 1990 out of the MSZMP, the state party that ruled the country under various names between 1947 and 1989.
As in many other former communist countries, the transition to democracy and market economy took place peacefully with the participation of figureheads from the former omnipotent party.
"The proposal equals to the stigmatisation of the modern Hungarian left," Socialist deputy Gergely Barandy told Klubradio Monday.
"The goal of (the government) is not to convict communist criminals but to criminalise today's Socialist politicians who were 8-15 years old at the change of the regime," said Barandy, insisting the government was trying to divert the public's attention from its economic policies.
Constitutional lawyer Gyorgy Kollath meanwhile called the proposal a "narrow-minded attempt" and warned that "laws include state-set rules of conduct and guarantees, and extreme political announcements motivated by self-interest should have no place among them."
The bill, like many others made by Fidesz, was submitted to parliament by two deputies as an individual motion, a tactic that eliminates compulsory coordination with the opposition and social partners.
The new constitution drafted by Fidesz which sailed through parliament in April drew heavy criticism from civic groups, rights organisations and opposition parties.
BUDAPEST - Hungary's governing Fidesz party has submitted a bill to parliament that would hold the opposition Socialists accountable for crimes committed by the former communist party before 1989.
"The Hungarian state cannot be based on the sins of the communist regime," according to the bill put forward late Sunday, according to national news agency MTI.
"Due to the personal continuity binding the leadership of the old and the new party," the Socialists (MSZP) should be held accountable for the actions of the former communist regime, which has until now escaped scrutiny, it added.
The bill, which will be included in the constitution if passed, describes the former communist party - the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) - and its successors as "criminal organisations."
When the country's new constitution takes effect on January 1, "there will be an opportunity to do justice," it says.
The bill, which triggered condemnation Monday from the MSZMP, is likely to be adopted in parliament where Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz has a two-thirds majority.
According to the text, the communist leaders were responsible "for having maintained and run the oppressive regime, violated the law and betrayed the nation."
It said their crimes included the suppression of a burgeoning democracy at the end of World War II with Soviet support, the killing and torturing of citizens, discrimination based on origins or political beliefs, illegal monitoring of private lives, and the crushing of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising.
The document also described the MSZP "as the heir of illegally accumulated wealth, as the beneficiary of illegitimate spoils obtained during the dictatorship or the transition (to democracy)."
The Socialist party was created in 1990 out of the MSZMP, the state party that ruled the country under various names between 1947 and 1989.
As in many other former communist countries, the transition to democracy and market economy took place peacefully with the participation of figureheads from the former omnipotent party.
"The proposal equals to the stigmatisation of the modern Hungarian left," Socialist deputy Gergely Barandy told Klubradio Monday.
"The goal of (the government) is not to convict communist criminals but to criminalise today's Socialist politicians who were 8-15 years old at the change of the regime," said Barandy, insisting the government was trying to divert the public's attention from its economic policies.
Constitutional lawyer Gyorgy Kollath meanwhile called the proposal a "narrow-minded attempt" and warned that "laws include state-set rules of conduct and guarantees, and extreme political announcements motivated by self-interest should have no place among them."
The bill, like many others made by Fidesz, was submitted to parliament by two deputies as an individual motion, a tactic that eliminates compulsory coordination with the opposition and social partners.
The new constitution drafted by Fidesz which sailed through parliament in April drew heavy criticism from civic groups, rights organisations and opposition parties.