Election 2018 – Socialists-Párbeszéd slams government for ‘welfare crisis’

Hungary is suffering from a “welfare crisis”, while the country’s “anti-social” government is reluctant to resolve related problems, Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the allied Socialist-Párbeszéd parties, told a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday.

Karácsony insisted that “all areas affecting the everyday life of people are in a critical state” and mentioned health and welfare services, pensions and high public utility prices as such areas.

Karácsony spoke after a meeting of parliament’s welfare committee, where “deputies of ruling Fidesz voted down” opposition proposals to address welfare problems.

The Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, if voted into power on April 8, will start building “a true social democracy” and replace “all sources (the government has) cut in recent years”.

“We must reverse the tendency of pensioner impoverishment; we need a fairer pension system,” Karácsony added. He said his party alliance would cut “pensions in the million-forint range” and double the minimum pension, as well as reintroduce 13th month pensions. A Socialist-Párbeszéd government would also introduce a guaranteed pensions programme, Karácsony said.

Ruling Fidesz referred to Karácsony in a statement as “George Soros’s man” and insisted that Karácsony would “make it obligatory for Hungarian people to shelter and support migrants”.

In its statement, Fidesz blamed the Socialist governments before 2010 for “impoverishing the country, stripping the elderly of one month’s pension, tripling the price of gas and bringing health care to the verge of collapsing”.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI