Leftists blames Orbán cabinet for increasing income gap

Arló, Hungary. Photo: MTI

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has blamed the government for a widening gap between Hungary’s poor and rich.

Gergely Arató, deputy parliamentary leader of the party, told a press conference on Tuesday that the income gap was growing fastest in Hungary among European Union members, according to Eurostat figures.

“Some 1.2 million Hungarians have no chance of leaving poverty behind,” he insisted,

and went on to say that Hungary’s tax and income regulations, family support and other central systems “all benefit the rich”.

Arató was asked about a recent court ruling condemning a school in Gyöngyöspata, in north-eastern Hungary for segregating Roma children, and he said that “in any state governed by the rule of law court decisions must be enforced” and suggested that the compensation of 100 million forints (EUR 300,000), set by the court, should be paid out to the complainants.

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Arató slammed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for his “hatred-inciting” remarks criticising the ruling, as well as his “racist-sounding phrases that can be easily misunderstood”.

Arató insisted that tension in Gyöngyöspata was not a new phenomenon; it rooted in “segregating Roma children with the knowledge of and support from the Hungarian state”. He added that Roma children had been given worse tuition than the non-Roma. “The government ought to refrain from increasing tension and find a solution”, he said.