Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he wants to debate the possible reintroduction of the death

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he wants to debate the possible reintroduction of the death penalty with his European Union partners.
Viktor Orban said current penalties for serious crime were too lenient and “the death penalty question should be put on the agenda in Hungary,” he said. “Hungary will stop at nothing when it comes to protecting its citizens.”
On 19 May, Viktor Orban defended his stance while appearing at the European Parliament in Strasbourg at the request of political groups from both left and right. “Hungary is a constitutional country which conducts its political fights within constitutional means. I would be happy to see a change to the European law which would give back the question of the death penalty to the national competence,” Orban told Euronews.
The European Commission reiterated that any reintroduction of the death penalty would lead to suspension of voting rights. On 1 June, in an interview with Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, warned that "if Hungary wanted to introduce the death penalty, that would be a ground for divorce." “A reason for divorce! One of my political beliefs is that there shall be no death penalty. Anyone who introduces the death penalty has no place in the European Union.”
However, Viktor Orban has later clarified that there was no debate and no legislative initiative on death penalty in Hungary, and his government has no plans to reintroduce it. Orban said he was “against anyone driving the country out of the EU and Nato”. "For us Hungarians they are our family,” he said.
Hungary abolished the death penalty – after this was proscribed by the EU charter of fundamental rights – following the collapse of communism in 1989.