Hungarian oppostion: ‘Govt plan to punish teachers in strike unacceptable’

The government is preparing to punish teachers striking to protest against the state of public education, a step “politically, professionally and humanly” unacceptable, the spokesman of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said on Tuesday.

“It has turned out that András Lopussny, an attache for social affairs at Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the European Union, has recently asked representatives of Hungary’s allies whether their countries have disciplinary measures in place to punish teachers who go on strike,” Balázs Barkóczi told an online press conference.

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The DK lawmaker said he had asked Justice Ministry State Secretary János Bóka about the matter at a meeting of parliament’s EU affairs committee on Monday, who responded as saying that “the attache had not acted out of his own will, but had asked experts at the request of the Hungarian minister who oversees the area”.

Barkóczi said that “the wages of the teachers who staged protests must be raised, their right to strike must be restored and those who have been unlawfully dismissed for lawfully staging a protest must be put back in their jobs”.

Read alsoHungarian teachers union call for a strike

Source: MTI