Socialists demand govt drop Vodafone purchase plans

The opposition Socialist Party has called on the government to abandon its plans to buy a minority stake in telecom company Vodafone and “spend the sum on the Hungarian people instead”.

Imre Komjáthi, the party’s deputy leader, told a press conference on Thursday that the government “fills their own pockets with taxpayers’ forints”, and insisted that the 350 billion forints (EUR 857m) allocated for the purchase would be sufficient to give public sector employees a pay rise.

Alternatively, the sum could facilitate a “real” utility price cut programme such as financing solar panels or better insulation for houses, Komjathi said.