New parliament's inaugural session

A month after the April 8 general elections, the new Hungarian parliament held its inaugural session this Tuesday. The ruling party Fidesz and its satellite partner KDNP have two thirds of the 199 seats in parliament, empowering them to pass important legislation without consent from the opposition.

Speaking at the inaugural session, President János Áder thanked the voters and those implementing the voting procedure for their participation and suggested that Viktor Orbán should be elected prime minister.

According to the President, it is worth dealing with the lessons of the electoral period, and therefore, he proposed to the parliamentary legislative committee to review the experiences of the electoral process with the National Electoral Commission  and, if it is justified, to propose to Parliament to amend the Electoral Procedure Act.

Following the session of parliament, thousands of people - 10,000 according to the organizers - demonstrated in front of the Parliament building for democracy. The Hungarian news agency MTI quoted one of the organizers as saying that they reject the governing parties' political system, which is "based on hatred."