demonstration

Dairy farmers stage demo with 50 cows in Budapest

Budapest, May 23 (MTI) – Dozens of dairy farmers started a demonstration with 50 cows in central Budapest on Monday demanding better market opportunities.

They gathered at Margaret Bridge near Parliament and will march to the prime minister’s office to hand over a petition to the government.

The protesters demand that the government should reduce the VAT to 5 percent not only on fresh milk, but all dairy produce next year, Imre Hegedus, a representative of the sector, told MTI.

This would eliminate VAT fraud which weakens dairy farmers’ position on the domestic market, he said.

A similar protest was held in Budapest early last month.

May 23, 2016

Budapest Festival Orchestra stages musical demonstration in downtown Budapest

Budapest (MTI) – The internationally celebrated Budapest Festival Orchestra staged a musical demonstration in downtown Budapest on Saturday to protest against the Municipal Assembly’s decision to reduce funding for the ensemble.

“First and foremost, we are here to demonstrate that we really love Budapest and we know that Budapest, too, really loves the Budapest Festival Orchestra,” Iván Fischer, the director, told a crowd that filled Vörösmarty Square.

Jobbik protests against migrant centre in Körmend

Budapest, May 6 (MTI) – Jobbik staged a protest march in Körmend, in western Hungary, and demanded that a local reception centre should be shut down, on Friday.

Tibor Bana, local leader and MP of Jobbik, told some 200-250 participants that his party does not “want to see migrants in Körmend”. Bana insisted that “minor incidents involving migrants” have occurred in the city, and voiced concern that further migrants arriving could make the situation “much worse”.

Dániel Z Kárpát, Jobbik’s vice chair, warned that though Friday’s demonstration has been a “peaceful warning”, residents were ready to “protect their country, family, assets, their own territory”.

Z Kárpát demanded that a border guard should be set up and Hungary’s borders be sealed. “Hungary cannot be forced to accommodate unwelcome foreigners”, he insisted.

Photo: MTI

May 7, 2016

Demonstration held in Budapest by taxi drivers against Uber – Videos, Photos

Budapest, April 26 (MTI) – The cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday will consider the option of introducing further sanctions against illegal taxi services, and it will also examine whether the taxi payment system should be electronically connected to the tax office, the National Development Ministry said on Tuesday, reacting to news of a demonstration held in Budapest by taxi drivers against Uber.

The ministry said that from the outset, the government had stood up for Hungarian taxi drivers who keep to the regulations, since they carry out their jobs legally, stick to technical and personnel rules and pay tax.

The ministry is determined that personal transport services should operate under uniform regulations, it added.

Transport service providers who ignore regulations and obtain unfair competitive advantage will be banned from the market.

Strict new sanctions have been put in place in the past few months in order to curb illegal taxi services. These include fining unlicensed dispatcher services and removing taxi number plates on the spot, the ministry said.

Taxi services operating according to rules must now improve their services by providing an app, for instance, to make their services faster and more convenient, the ministry added.

Taxi drivers held a demonstration by partially blocking traffic in the city centre on Tuesday. They previously held demonstrations against Uber in January and March.

Photo: MTI

Video: Drone Media Studio

April 26, 2016

Budapest’s traffic gets affected by taxi drivers’ demonstration

NOL.hu reports that taxi drivers are preparing for a demonstration on Tuesday, April 26. About 1000 drivers are said to participate in the event, which will surely slow down the traffic of the downtown. They aim to trigger something that would stand up against Uber and other illegal transport applications.

The article refers to Népszabadság, who found out that taxi drivers plan to start a demonstration at about 8 o’clock on Tuesday morning, April 26 at Hősök tere. Then they would drive to Széchenyi tér to demonstrate in front of the building of the Home Office. According to the site, the protest would go on until 2-3 pm.

Furthermore, they talked to Géza Gottlieb, one of the organizers of the demonstration of January, who mentioned that the demonstrators do not intend to affect the traffic of Budapest as aggressively as they did earlier. However, this time the action might be more influential because now the representatives of the labour organizations and other transport organizations came to an agreement. Importantly, even though none of the big companies encourage the attendance of the demonstration, no drivers are banned from it either. Thus, it is hoped that at least 1000 cars will be seen demonstrating.

The whole point of the action is to protest against all of the companies in the country that “break the laws” regarding transportation. Not only against Uber, but against every other company of the grey or black market. Though, it was promised in January by government representatives that there will be a change on the market but actually nothing significant had happened yet. There are a few exceptions, when the license plates were taken off, but apart from them drivers of Uber and others are still on the streets.

NOL asked Gottlieb what comes next, in case of their action on April 26 having no success, but he refused to think about it negatively, for he believed in their success. Although, eventually, he said that, if the drivers could not achieve their goals this Tuesday then they are going to hold a demonstration every Tuesday later.

Copy editor: bm

April 25, 2016

Civil groups hold protest against Liget Project

Budapest, April 24 (MTI) – Civil groups held a demonstration on Sunday against a development project in the City Park, dubbed the Liget Project, which includes constructing a museum quarter.

Over five hundred participants adopted a symbol of their protest, a tree growing out of a clenched fist.

Organisers said that civil groups demanded a halt to the project and planned changes to the park withdrawn. Genuine dialogue should be launched on how to revamp the public park, they added.

“Budapest is one of Europe’s most polluted cities and anyone who wants to cut down a single tree here is on an offensive against the city and its residents,” András Lányi, an activist, said. He said the reason why the City Park would be “turned into a construction site” is that the prime minister had decided to use the National Gallery buildings in the Buda Castle for his own purposes and thus a new building is planned to be built for the gallery in the middle of the City Park.

Hajnalka Schmidt, head of Greenpeace Hungary, insisted that the City Park was the world’s first public park and should be maintained and revamped accordingly. “If buildings 20-40 metres high are built here it will lose its purpose as a public park,” she said, adding that according to a survey, 75 percent of Budapest residents oppose the construction of the new buildings.

The project company Városliget Zrt said in response that as a result of the planned upgrade green spaces in the park would grow from the current 60 to 65 percent. Areas now covered in concrete, roads too wide and unnecessary buildings and car parks will be demolished and rehabilitated with green areas, a statement from the company said on Sunday. Motor traffic through the park will be significantly reduced, too, it added.

Photo: MTI

April 24, 2016

Budapest cyclists pedal for better roads

Budapest, April 23 (MTI) – The Hungarian “I Bike Budapest” pro-cycling movement started its awareness-raising march on Saturday afternoon.

The parade started at 3pm from Fovam ter, by the Danube on the city’s eastern side, and will make a big circle round the city following a route by the embankment, touching Heroes’ square in the north-east and back to the city centre before crossing over a bridge to the western side and ending up on Margaret island. The four-hour ride will be secured by police and many roads will be shut down to motorists.

The organising bicycle confredation Magyar Kerékpárosklub said earlier that the event aims to create a “friendly atmosphere” for cycling in the city as well as calling attention to cycling as an environmentally friendly and potentially fast means of transport in the city.

April 23, 2016

LMP stages demo for “black robe nurse” at Parliament

Budapest (MTI) – Several hundred people gathered in front of Parliament on Friday for a demonstration organised by the green opposition LMP party to express solidarity with Mária Sándor, the nurse who started a movement to call attention to grim conditions in Hungary’s health care.

“Sándor’s movement is proof that Hungarian society has reserves; people who cannot be silenced,” Bernadett Szél, LMP’s co-leader, told the protesters. The black robes Sandor wears could mark the beginning of a cleansing process, Szel said, and suggested that parliament should be “cleansed” of deputies who are there “just to do their own business”.

Sándor thanked participants for their solidarity, and said that education and health were “more than party politics” and warned that “by and by we will have no doctors and nurses to take care of the patients”.

The crowd, mostly wearing black shirts, chanted “Go on, Mária” and “we support you”.

Photo: MTI

April 16, 2016

Opposition parties decry state of health-care system

Budapest, April 15 (MTI) – The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) and Dialogue for Hungary (PM) parties on Friday held separate protests against the state of Hungary’s health-care system to express their solidarity with the sector’s workers.

DK lawmaker Lajos Oláh told reporters after a protest by some two dozen activists outside a Budapest hospital that it was unacceptable that the number of deaths from hospital-acquired infections tripled over the past six years. He said that on average, three doctors and two nurses leave Hungary to go work abroad each day, while only the wealthy and those who have the right connections have access to proper medical care. Olah urged hospital workers to voice their concerns over the state of the health-care system as teachers had done for their sector.

Members and activists of the PM party laid a black flag on the steps of Parliament in support of an initiative by Mária Sandor, a civil activist nurse, who made a name for herself by wearing black attire at work. Sándor earlier called on health-care workers go to work on Friday wearing black to draw attention to the industry’s problems.

PM said state health care in Hungary was “on the brink of catastrophe”. Co-leader Tímea Szabó criticised the government’s “inhumane and heartless” health-care policies. She said one third of the country’s doctors and nurses had “fled” abroad and health institutions are poorly equipped, so patients now go to hospitals “only to die”. Szabó said her party would launch a petition to pressure the government to “give back to the sector the 400 billion forints” that had been cut from the health-care budget. She called on the government to pay fair wages to health workers, scrap waiting lists and do everything in its power to eliminate hospital-acquired infections.

Government wants health-care wages to reach 70 pc of EU average ‘in a few years’

The government aims to raise wages in Hungary’s health-care sector to 70 percent of the European Union’s average health-care wages “within a few years”, the state secretary for health care said on Friday.

Zoltán Ónodi-Szűcs told public news channel M1 that the wage hikes planned beyond 2017 will depend on the country’s economic growth.

The state secretary expressed hope that the government can reach an agreement with the health-care unions at next week’s wage talks.

Photo: MTI

April 15, 2016

Teachers hold 2-hour warning strike – Photos

Budapest, April 15 (MTI) – The teachers’ union PDSZ held a two-hour warning strike at state schools in the country from 8am on Friday. The strike was supported by the Tanítanék (I want to teach!) movement and the civil public education platform. The platform called on supporters to set up “checked shirt circles” and to display a black flag at their school building.

László Palkovics, the public education secretary, said talks with teachers’ representatives would continue on Monday. He said the sides had come closer to an agreement on 18 out of 25 demands, including wage hikes. He added that next year’s budget for operating schools will rise by 25 percent, or by at least 100 billion forints (EUR 321m).

A full-day strike has been called by the teachers’ strike committee for next Wednesday, as they said talks failed on the reduction of the number of teachers’ compulsory classroom hours and their administrative burdens, wage increases, free choice of textbooks as well as reducing the burden on students.

Photo: MTI

April 15, 2016

Retailers organisation calls demonstration for Sunday on shop openings

Budapest, April 13 (MTI) – The Union of Retail Employees (KASZ) has organised a demonstration for Sunday in protest of the government’s fast procedure in removing restrictions on Sunday shop openings.

The demonstration will be held by the Economy Ministry’s building and the union wants to present a petition to Economy Minister Mihály Varga, KASZ said in a statement on Wednesday.

The union is “shocked that the government revoked the law on Sunday shop closings with the stroke of a pen in record time,” the statement said. “Employees do not want to work on Sundays, but if they must, they want to be paid for the time stolen from their families,” the statement added.

Lawmakers voted on Tuesday to repeal a law prohibiting retailers from opening shops over 200sqm in size on Sundays. The opposition has criticised that parliament’s move comes with scrapping the rule which doubles pay for Sunday work and restoring the 50 percent bonus rate that was in place before the restrictions came into effect.

April 14, 2016

Teachers fail to reach agreement with government, strike looms

Budapest (MTI) – Although the sides came closer, no agreement was reached at talks between a teachers’ strike committee and the government on Monday.

The talks focused on the amount of mandatory services to be provided under strike laws on the day of the strike teachers called for April 20, statements by Piroska Galló, the head of the PSZ union, and Imre Sipos, the state secretary for public education, said.

Sipos said the government wants the minimum services to be provided at all schools, while the teachers’ unions want the rules to apply only to certain schools.

Teachers’ organisations said earlier that two hours of civil disobedience and a warning strike were planned for this Friday in addition to the full-day nationwide strike on April 20.

The full-day strike was called by the teachers’ strike committee after talks with the government failed on the reduction of the number of teachers’ compulsory classroom hours and their administrative burdens, wage increases, free choice of textbooks as well as reducing the burden on students.

Photo: MTI

April 12, 2016

Teachers to hold strike on April 15, April 20

Budapest, April 6 (MTI) – Plans for two hours of civil disobediance and a warning strike are under way for April 15 as well as for a full-day nationwide teachers’ strike on April 20, the organisers said on Wednesday.

László Miklósi, head of the association of history teachers and of the Civil Platform for Public Education (CPK), told a press conference that the various unions agreed at a Wednesday meeting to cooperate “in the interest of public education”. Members of the teachers’s strike committee, namely the Teachers’ Union PSZ, the Union of Education Leaders and the Union of Hungarian Public Education and Training, met with representatives of the Democratic Union of Teachers (PDSZ), the Tanitanek (I want to teach) movement and the CPK, Miklósi said.

The CPK will also hold talks with a government delegation on proposals to improve public education in Hungary on April 12, he added.

László Mendrey, the head of the PDSZ, told MTI that there is no decision as yet as to whether the civil disobediance and strike would coincide. The former was proposed by the Tanitanek movement and the latter by the PDSZ. He said his own opinion was that the two events should be held simultaneously. He said the unions want to cooperate fully to draw as many people as possible.

The full-day strike was called by the teachers’s strike committee after talks with the government failed, Piroska Galló, the head of the PSZ union, said earlier. Galló said Monday’s talks failed to result in an agreement on the reduction of the number of teachers’ compulsory classroom hours and their administrative burdens, wage increases, free choice of textbooks as well as reducing the burden on students.

László Palkovics, the state secretary for education, told Inforadio on Wednesday that a working group is looking into plans to reduce the workload on students from September this year. He said however that changes would not affect physical education classes, which are mandatory to be held every day.

Photo: MTI

April 7, 2016

Teachers’ unions mulling strike preparations – Update

Budapest, April 5 (MTI) – Teachers’ trade unions could soon begin preparations for a strike, having failed to reach an agreement on their demands with government representatives on Monday evening, the chairwoman of teacher trade union PSZ told commercial news channel ATV on Tuesday.

Piroska Galló said the unions would inform the government about the strike preparations and set a seven-day deadline for it to respond to their demands. Unions would also begin discussions with schools on minimum required services, she said.

Galló said Monday’s talks failed to result in an agreement on the reduction of the number of teachers’ compulsory classroom hours and their administrative burdens, wage increases, a free choice of textbooks as well as reducing the burden on students.

László Palkovics, the state secretary for education, told a news conference that his ministry is engaged in negotiations with the strike committee on disputed issues and conditions for a possible work stoppage.

He said that in some areas the standpoints of the two sides are narrowing but there are still questions which have yet to be resolved. He said an agreement must be made on strike conditions and the minimum of services that should be provided. Asked whether a strike could be avoided, he said it was impossible to tell at the current stage. He confirmed that the strike committee had announced preparations for a national strike on April 20.

Speaking on public television M1, Palkovics said the sides had agreed on the principles of reducing the burden on students but the details are yet to be discussed. The sides reached an agreement about revamping the qualification system in an effort to reduce the burden on teachers, he added. No deal was reached, however, on the scope of the state’s management role in public education and on reducing the number of compulsory classroom hours, Palkovics said.

The opposition LMP party said it supported the strike initiative and insisted that the education roundtable was a merely a means to draw out negotiations. LMP lawmaker Istvan Ikotity said in a statement that cosmetic changes to the education system would be unacceptable and he called for a root-and-branch change.

Photo: MTI

April 5, 2016

Dairy farmers hold march for more subsidies

Budapest, April 4 (MTI) – Dozens of dairy farmers held a protest on Monday, marching in the capital with live cows for more subsidies and better market opportunities, the organisers said.

The subsidies provided by the European Union and the Hungarian state are inadequate and often lead to lower farmgate prices for dairy than the cost of production, farmers said.

Six cows walked along with farmers on the eight-kilometre route starting from the headquarters of the National Trade Association in north Budapest’s Becsi ut, past the National Food Safety Office (Nebih) in Keleti Karoly street and ending by the National Tax Office in central Budapest. The protesters handed over petitions to the authorities at all three locations.

Photo: MTI

April 4, 2016

Cattle march on the streets of Budapest

Herds of cattle are to be transported to Budapest on April 4 as part of dairy farmers’ demonstration against the crisis in the industry. The protest is directed against milk importers’ supposed food adulteration and tax evasion practices, agrarszektor.hu reports.

Farmers are planning a dramatic protest on the streets of Budapest next Monday, including a “show of breeding animals” in front of the headquarters of the Hungarian Trade Association (OKSZ), as well as a “cattle march” to the National Food Chain Safety Office (Nébih) and the building of the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV).

Demands for retailers include the suspension of purchase from companies who are involved with dishonest dealings, such as tax evasion; the exclusion of said importers from the trade until further investigation of their import portfolio; and collaboration on the side of the Trade Association in establishing market protection measures following Dutch, Belgian, French and Spanish examples.

They also request comprehensive investigations from Néhib and NAV, respectively, for companies that could have been involved in questionable practices regarding food safety or taxes in the last five years.

According to agrarszektor.hu, the main reason for the demonstrations is the fact that the price of raw milk is 55-72 HUF/kg (approx. €0.20), while the prime cost is between 95-105 HUF/kg (approx. €0.32). Even with EU and Hungarian financial aids farmers are in a disadvantaged position. They also claim that retail chains contribute to the low prices, since, despite their communicated intentions, they still do not provide proper market for the Hungarian goods.

Copy editor: bm

April 3, 2016

A one-hour protest around the country by teachers – PHOTOS

Budapest, March 30 (MTI) – Commenting on a one-hour protest being held around the country by teachers on Wednesday, the state secretary for education told a news conference that the civil disobedience was “not right” but the demonstrators would not face any legal consequences.

Speaking in connection with the action organised by the Tanítanék (I would teach) movement, László Palkovics said the teachers would have to make up for the hour in lost lessons due to the walkout.

He criticised the so-called alternative roundtable, saying that “Hungarian education is not a private matter”, and he urged its members to join the official public education roundtable.

István Pukli, the head of the Tanítanék movement, called on teachers taking part in the protest and sympathisers to declare their demand for changes to the way public schools are run from September.

The Jobbik party said it supported the teachers’ demands but it urged a professional debate and added that protesters should behave in a way that shows a good example to children. The failure of the government’s education policy is beyond doubt and the decision to abolish state school manager Klik is only a PR trick, spokesperson Dóra Dúro said in a statement.

The green opposition LMP party said the government was fully responsible for the teachers’ action of civil disobedience because “employees have been robbed of their right to strike” and civil disobedience remains the only means of expressing their protest. LMP lawmaker István Ikotity told a press conference that his party supported the protesters and called on the government to “stop threatening teachers”.

The opposition Együtt said competencies that enable teachers and schools to take responsibility for the children must be returned to them. Zsuzsanna Szelényi told a press conference that the teachers participating in the demonstration taken up their constitutional right and they should not be penalised for doing so.

Ruling Fidesz said the action organised by “former Socialist politican” Pukli and his associates does not serve the interests of children and teachers. The opposition statements supporting the action have been politically motivated, Fidesz said. The left-wing have “never been concerned” about teachers and they withdrew money from education during the time they were on government, the added. At the same time, the Fidesz government is carrying out an “unprecedented” increase in teachers’ wages and the public education roundtable “pursues real dialogue and successful work” with teachers, they added.

Teachers are demanding a reduction in administrative burdens, the right to freely decide which textbooks to use and the decentralisation of decision-making concerning the running of public schools. They also want more funding for schools and a lightening of the burden on students, among other demands.

The organisers of the protest told MTI on Wednesday evening that according to their records more than 7,000 people and at least 300 schools participated in the protest held between 8am and 9am.

Originally some 200 schools indicated in advance that they would participate in the action, said István Pukli, Katalin Törley and Olivér Pilz said in a joint statement.

Photo: MTI

March 30, 2016

Protesters demand transparency of prime minister’s assets

Budapest, March 29 (MTI) – A demonstration was organised by the opposition Együtt (Together) party demanding that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reveal the sources of his wealth.

At the demonstration, held ahead of an auction for state land in Székesfehérvár (W Hungary)on Tuesday morning, Együtt’s deputy leader demanded answers to questions regarding assets associated with Orbán and his family members.

Péter Juhász said that his party would, if it were to win power, recover the state-owned plots “illegitimately” auctioned off, and restitute them to people cultivating them.

Party leader Viktor Szigetvári said that the plots of farmland to be auctioned off included one sized 500 hectares that is “adjacent right to Orbán’s estate”. He also suggested that the land sales programme was about “helping corrupt front men to state loans and land across the country”.

Photo: MTI

March 29, 2016