PHOTO: Hollywood star, Breaking Bad’s Hank Shrader is in Budapest!
Recently, many Hollywood celebrities have been spotted in Hungary thanks to the country’s leading role in movie making. Among others, Breaking Bad’s Hank Shrader (Dean Norris) is also in Budapest, and he decided to partake in a protest to raise teachers’ pay in Hungary.
András Fekete-Győr, Momentum’s previous chairman, posted a photo on his social media page of Norris joining the demonstration in Budapest. The Hollywood actor is of Hungarian origins and is now vacationing in the capital with his kids.
“Visiting land of my grandfather”, he wrote on his Twitter on 16 June. The celebrity also shared four photos. One depicts his grandfather while another one shows his family gorging on traditional dishes like gulyás soup and chicken paprikash in a Hungarian restaurant. The third one is a selfie in front of the illustrious Hungarian parliament. Meanwhile, the fourth was taken of his son sporting a turul tattoo in front of Buda Castle’s turul monument. Turul was the traditional symbol of the Hungarian tribes conquering the Carpathian Basin in 896.
Visiting land of my grandfather #Hungary #Immigrants pic.twitter.com/8TzGN2OMLb
— Dean Norris (@deanjnorris) June 16, 2023
However, it seems the Hollywood star is not only keen to take part in a sightseeing tour, but he also digs deep into Hungary’s social and economic problems. One of the highly-debated issues right now is the dramatically low wages of Hungarian teachers. Opposition and teacher trade unions say the government’s new education law modification makes life even more difficult for people in this profession. Therefore, they organised a demonstration parallel with the parliamentary debate of the bill on Kossuth Square, in front of the parliament.
Hollywood actor spotted at the teachers’ demonstration in Budapest
And Dean Norris was also there. He is not the first Hollywood actor to partake in a Hungarian demonstration. The last time Eddie Redmayne did so as well. Norris snapped a selfie with Momentum’s former chairman, András Fekete-Győr.
Fekete-Győr wrote in the caption that he gave a quick Hungarian political crash course, and Norris expressed his support for their struggle. Below you can have a look:
Protest held at Parliament against law on teachers’ career paths
Protesters including students and teachers staged a demonstration in front of Parliament against the new law on teachers’ career paths on Friday evening. As lawmakers debated the amendment proposal, representatives of teacher and student organisations and unions told the protesters in Budapest’s Kossuth Square that the bill would set Hungary’s education system back decades and destroy the country’s future.
Speakers at the demonstration organised by the Tanítanék (I want to teach) movement and the United Student Front said that the proposal severely curbed the rights of teachers and students and caused irreversible damage. They lamented that teachers had not been asked for their input during the drafting of the law and accused the government of lying about consultations having taken place. The demonstration was also addressed by representatives of the opposition parties.
Ágnes Kunhalmi, co-leader of the Socialists, argued that while the ruling parties accused the opposition of lying, it was the Fidesz and Christian Democrat MPs who had been dishonest during the debate in Parliament. Balázs Barkóczi of the Democratic Coalition criticised the prime minister for “pointing the finger at Brussels when he should be raising teachers’ wages”. Jobbik-Conservatives MP Balázs Ander said the government was “dismantling” the knowledge of Hungary’s youth and turning them into “wage slaves”. LMP deputy group leader Máté Kanász-Nagy said the “lies that Brussels should be financing teachers’ wage hikes and that the new law would give the education system more freedom” had been “exposed”. Párbeszéd group leader Tímea Szabó called it “shameful” that the parliament was debating the “revenge law” behind closed doors. András Ferenc Dukán, a maths teacher representing Momentum, said the government “has no qualms about destroying our students, teachers and the country’s future”.