Facebook group protests against “looting” private pension funds

Budapest, November 25 (MTI) – A demonstration was held in central Budapest to protest against a government proposal concerning private pension funds, on Tuesday.

Zoltan Buki, member of a Facebook group which organised the demo, said that “the government is now eyeing the property of 60,000 people” and insisted that the cabinet had “irrevocably gone down to the level of petty thieves sneaking into homes at night and reaching into drawers”.

Zoltan Vajda, founder of the group, said that “the government wants to snatch the last deposits” of fund members. He insisted that if the government’s bill is passed into law, the savings would “disappear just like the 3,000 billion forints the government had transferred from private pension funds to the state fund in 2011”. “We won’t give them our money,” the speaker insisted, and added that the prime minister would “come a cropper”.

Vajda also announced that another demonstration would be held early in December to protest against government measures.

The opposition Socialists said earlier they would organise a class action lawsuit on behalf of private pension fund members in response to a government proposal to wind up private pension funds.

They responded to an economy ministry proposal for winding up private pension funds where fewer than 70 percent of members pay their mandatory monthly fees. According to National Bank of Hungary statistics only a few thousand private pension fund members now pay their mandatory monthly fees. Members paid 10,000 forints (EUR 33) a month on average in 2011, but this amount has by now fallen to 500 forints.

Photo: MTI – Janos Marjai

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters