Opposition: Paks upgrade would expose Hungary to Russian influence
Representatives of the united opposition said on Tuesday that the upgrade of the nuclear plant in Paks has become “untenable” because it would expose Hungary to Russian influence.
LMP’s Péter Ungár told an online press conference that the upgrade was a security risk because the construction was in the hands of “Russians who have also hacked the servers of the foreign ministry”. Lack of transparency also raises the threat of corruption, and the project could also lead to Hungary’s diplomatic isolation, he said. Continuing the investment would also mean that Hungary “does not tread the green path”, he said.
Rebeka Szabó (Párbeszéd), a candidate of the united opposition for the April 3 general election, called the upgrade a “total failure”.
The government agreed on the upgrade with Russia without allowing competition, and the construction has barely started, she said.
Contrary to the original plans, Russia would not handle used fuel rods, she said. Meanwhile, she insisted that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “intentionally dialled down” projects on sustainable energy, and tied “the country’s entire energy policy to this risky project”.
Bernadett Szél, another opposition for the election, said
the upgrade was a “corruption scheme that had nothing to do with nuclear energy.”
She insisted that János Süli, the minister without portfolio responsible for the upgrade, did not have the impact studies and risk assessments on the project, “so no one knows why the government started it in the first place.”
Szél said that
“after the change of government,” the energy efficiency of residential buildings would have a priority.
The opposition plans to renovate 100,000 dwellings a year, she said. This would also help Hungary “sever the umbilical chord to gas”, another factor in the country’s dependence of Russia, she said.
As we wrote a few weeks ago, work on the upgrade of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant is “proceeding according to plan”, the local unit of Russia’s Rosatom, the general contractor for the project, told regional news agency Paks-Press. Details HERE.
PM candidate Márki-Zay: Orbán had violated the most important imperative of Christians, not to kill
One cannot be a Christian and vote for ruling Fidesz and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who heads the most corrupt government in Hungary’s thousand-year history, the prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition said late on Sunday.
Péter Márki-Zay told a regional campaign closing event in Siófok in western Hungary that Orbán had violated the most important imperative of Christians, not to kill, “because he is responsible for the death of 45,000 Coronavirus victims.” During the epidemic, the government introduced free parking instead of free testing and acquired insufficient vaccines because “even at a time like that, it was most interested in how to steal”.
If the united opposition wins, the love for power will be replaced by the power of love, and every person can freely display their identity, Márki-Zay said.
He also said that everyone would be called to account for wrongdoings, regardless of whether they are on the side of the government or the opposition.
He accused those currently in power of election fraud and thanked opposition activists and poll watchers for their work, saying that “they stand on the right side of history”.
If the united opposition wins, Fidesz’s child protection law will be withdrawn and replaced by legal regulations to protect children also “from Fidesz peadophiles”,
he said.
Jobbik leader Péter Jakab said
it was shameful that the government had threatened teachers planning a strike and added that contrary to the cabinet’s claims, the real problems in Hungary were not sex-change operations for kindergarten pupils but the weak forint and expensive fuel and food.
DK MEP Klára Dobrev said Orbán was an autocratic dictator but the opposition had established democratic unity against him. The members of the united opposition have learnt how to sit at the same table, reach compromise and fight for common decisions, she added.
Socialist co-leader Ágnes Kunhalmi said
it was a “Fidesz lie” that the opposition was on the side of war, as the opposition had also voted in support of a resolution submitted by Fidesz which stated that Hungary would not send soldiers and weapons to Ukraine.
Párbeszéd co-leader and Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony asked for voters in and around Siofok to vote for opposition candidate Anita Kőrösi to save Lake Balaton.
LMP co-leader Máté Kanász-Nagy said the opposition was ready to implement its social programme which involved helping everyone in trouble. Local governments’ rights and resources that enable them to help those in need must be restored, he added.
Momentum board member Anna Orosz said
what was at stake at the election was whether Hungary could become a European country that with high-quality education, health care, jobs and protected green surfaces.
Independent lawmaker Ákos Hadházy said the only way to reduce corruption was to change the government. He promised increased controls partly as a result of Hungary joining the European prosecutor’s office.
Read also:
Párbeszéd pol: Fidesz “trying to get votes with vandalism and hate campaign”
Opposition politicians on Thursday accused ruling Fidesz and “people associated with Fidesz” of vandalising opposition election ads.
András Jámbor, a candidate of the united opposition in Budapest’s 6th district, told a press conference that over 1,500 opposition ads had been pasted over with stickers or flyers, or cut off, since the start of the campaign.
“After twelve years in government, Fidesz is still incapable of doing anything but vandalising, stealing and lying,” he said.
Párbeszéd campaign chief Dávid Dorosz said almost all candidates had had their ads vandalised. Fidesz is “trying to get votes with vandalism and a hate campaign,” he said.
He insisted that cabinet minister Antal Rogán had launched the “hate and smear campaign… because he looks down on voters and thinks that elections are won by aggressive Putinesque methods.”
Párbeszéd co-leader Tímea Szabó slammed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for “inciting hatred and destruction rather than governing for 12 years”. She insisted that the opposition had not vandalised ruling party ads.
At the end of the press conference, Jámbor, Dorosz and Szabó put on display a banner with the slogan “Stop ad vandalism! Dear Fidesz! You destroy, we build!”
Read alsoFM Szijjártó: “NATO not at war, and we have to do everything to keep it so”
Mayor of Budapest: Fidesz “is everything but civic and conservative”
Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest and the co-head of Párbeszéd, called for a return to the “dreams of 1990” at a campaign event organised by the united opposition in the capital on Sunday.
Karácsony said “Europe, democracy, self-government, solidarity and a social market economy” were among those dreams during the change of regime.
He said the central government sees “a rival” in the municipal council of Budapest and “is interested in its downfall”, “punching down” on it to prevent people from seeing the council is capable of governing and wants to serve.
Fidesz, Karácsony said, “is everything but civic and conservative” and said the party “needs to be taught a lesson on conservative civic values” at the polls in April.
Momentum chair and MEP Anna Donáth said “all of Europe is waiting for Hungary to turn its back on Russia-friendly policy and again be treated as an equal partner”.
Gergely Orsi, the mayor of Budapest’s District II, said the united opposition aims for a “nurturing, caring Hungary…where all in need are helped, regardless of political affiliation”.
Piroska Visi, the Budapest coordinator for the Everybody’s Hungary Movement, said hope needs to be restored in a government “that serves, not rules”.
Read alsoHungarian Pres. not visiting Poland on the day of Polish-Hungarian friendship?
Roma spox calls on minority candidates to distance from the united opposition
The spokesman of the ethnic Roma minority in parliament has called on Leftist Roma candidates to distance themselves from the united opposition, which has put Jobbik vice-president Dániel Z. Kárpát at 10th place on its joint list.
“A leopard won’t change its spots,” Félix Farkas said in a statement to MTI.
Referring to opposition candidates Lajos Lőcsei, Sándor Berki and Ferenc Varga, Farkas said a place on the opposition list meant the candidates shared Z. Kárpát’s “views on Jews and Romas”.
Z. Kárpát “smiles as he uses the Hitler salute”, Farkas said.
As long as politicians with anti-Semitic views receive places on the joint list of the Democratic Coalition, Jobbik, Momentum, Socialists, LMP and Párbeszéd, right-wing extremism will always be present in the opposition, he said.
Read alsoOpposition confronts Orbán about drone in Hungarian airspace
Opposition: Orbán “Putin’s minion, the last vassal of the aggressor”
An extraordinary session of parliament convened by the opposition parties to condemn Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine lacked a quorum on Thursday night, with representatives of the ruling parties staying away.
The session was initiated by representatives of the Democratic Coalition, Jobbik, the Socialist Party, LMP, and Párbeszéd
Bence Tordai of the Párbeszéd party said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was “still trying to serve Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests and slow down joint and effective European action”.
“The prime minister loses his real wars as a rule: he lost against the state debt, budget deficit, inflation, a drastic weakening of the forint, and poverty,” he said, adding that Orbán, who normally opted for a fight, was now uncharacteristically promoting “peace and strategic calm” when it came to condemning Putin.
LMP lawmaker Antal Csárdi said the peoples of central and eastern Europe must “speak clearly” when an independent state suffers military aggression. “That obligation especially applies to Hungarians” in view of the crushing of the anti-Soviet revolution of 1956, he said.
László Varju, a deputy of the Democratic Coalition, said that the government had “led the country into a total moral and financial disaster”. The prime minister “is Putin’s minion, the last vassal of the aggressor”, who “has made the EU and NATO distrustful of Hungary”, he said, adding that
Orbán’s policies had led to “record-high public debt and inflation” as well as a fuel shortage at filling stations. “This isn’t strategic calm but the scrabbling about of a headless chicken,” he said.
Ágnes Kunhalmi of the Socialist Party said the parliamentary resolution adopted earlier in the day made it obvious that “Fidesz has so far lied” about the united opposition’s position. “Anyone can see that no political force in Hungary wants to send weapons to Ukraine,” she said. “Hungary’s security depends on NATO rather than on Orbán,” Kunhalmi added.
Jobbik MP Dániel Z. Kárpát said that the absence of government lawmakers at the debate “equals treason” while “Ukrainians and Hungarians or anyone are trying to escape war”. He accused the government of “faffing around” and “idly watching the first signs of an impending global crisis”.
Read also Opposition: new president was “candidate of the corrupt pro-Putin” Orbán
Opposition: new president was “candidate of the corrupt pro-Putin” Orbán
The only way out of Hungary’s “historical dead-end” is via a change of government, the united opposition said after the election of Fidesz’s Katalin Novák as Hungary’s next president by MPs on Thursday, adding that: “Novák will never be the president of all Hungarians.”
Parliament elected the former youth and family affairs minister for a five-year-term with 137 votes out of 188 valid ballots.
The vote’s outcome was a foregone conclusion once Fidesz nominated Novák to replace János Áder, the Democratic Coalition, Jobbik, LMP, Mindenki Magyarországa Mozgalom, Momentum, Socialist and Párbeszéd parties said in a joint statement. Novák, it added, was the
“candidate of the corrupt pro-Putin rule” of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
In his address to parliament, Péter Róna, the opposition’s presidential candidate, said Hungarians wanted to belong to the West, to the EU and NATO “rather than to Putin’s Russia”, it said.
“In the April 3 ballot, two worlds will compete, and it will be United for Hungary that stands for the EU, NATO and for peace,” the statement said.
Read alsoParliament elected the first female president of Hungary! – UPDATED
Joint opposition: PM “continues to make statements serving Russian interests”
The united opposition wants peace, and considers stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin, strengthening the European defence alliance and “freeing Hungary from Russia’s sphere of interest” as key to that mission, the alliance said on Friday.
Rejecting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s statement that the opposition was “on the side of war”, the Together for Hungary (Együtt Magyarországért) alliance has called on Orbán to “try to mitigate the fallout of war rather than lying, slandering and inciting hatred.”
Read also: PM candidate Márki-Zay: PM Orbán a mercenary and servant of Putin
Orbán’s see-saw politics constitute the greatest risk for Hungary’s security, the statement said. “The prime minister … continues to make statements serving Russian interests, and incites [Hungarians] against NATO and EU which guarantee the country’s security, and against the opposition.”
The statement issued by the Democratic Coalition, LMP, Momentum, the Everyone’s Hungary Movement, the Socialists, Jobbik and Párbeszéd accused Orbán of “trying to live up to the vileness of his role model … Putin.”
Read alsoGovernment: ‘Left’s irresponsibility knows no bounds’
Hungary’s National Election Committee registers three natl party lists
Hungary’s National Election Committee (NVB) registered three national party lists for the April 3 general election at a meeting on Saturday, after the 4pm submission deadline.
The NVB registered the national list of the DK-Jobbik-Momentum-MSZP-LMP-Párbeszéd united opposition parties and the allied ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrats (KDNP), each comprising 279 candidates, and the Two-tailed Dog Party with 58 candidates.
Under Hungary’s election rules, only parties that field at least 71 candidates in at least 14 counties and the capital can put together a national list.
Parties may nominate a maximum of three times as many candidates on their national lists as the number of parliamentary seats that can be won from the votes cast for national lists, which is 93.
The committee already registered the national list of the Mi Hazánk Movement on Wednesday and is set to take a decision on the lists of the Solution Movement (MEMO), the Party for Normal Life and Our Party – IMA at its meeting scheduled for Sunday.
Hungarian voters will elect a 199-member parliament on April 3.
Read alsoSecretary condemns NGOs attempting to gain a grip on political decision-making
Joint opposition held demonstration at Russian embassy in Budapest
The united opposition held a demonstration in front of the Russian embassy in Budapest under the motto “Against Putin, for Ukraine” late on Thursday. Péter Márki-Zay, the prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition, called on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to drop his “see-saw policy”.
Márki-Zay said Hungary should fully support the European Union’s sanctions against Russia. He also demanded that the government should suspend the licencing procedure of the project to expand the Paks nuclear power plant and expel the International Investment Bank, which he called a “Russian spy bank”.
In addition, the politician called on Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to return an award recently received “for serving Russian interests”.
“Hungary’s place has been in western Europe, with Christian roots, since King Saint Stephen; the West is our ally, and we are members of NATO and the European Union,”
Márki-Zay said.
Ágnes Vadai, deputy leader of the Democratic Coalition, said that the government “should bear in mind that Hungarians stand for peace and Europe”. LMP co-leader Máté Kanász-Nagy said it was “shameful” that, although the prime minister had condemned the Russian attack, he also voiced support for “continuing business with Putin”. The Paks nuclear power plant upgrade project “should not be revised but dropped”, he insisted.
Socialist co-leader Ágnes Kunhalmi said
both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Orbán were “unreliable”,
and insisted that a government change in Hungary would “benefit the whole of the EU”.
Jobbik deputy leader László Lukács said “Hungarians, Europe, and the sane half of the world support peace and will continue to do so”. Momentum head Anna Donáth slammed Orbán for
“making friends and doing business with eastern dictatorships for 12 years”.
“There will be no unity in Europe as long as Orban is in government,” she added.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, co-leader of Párbeszéd, said “we are not protesting against the Russian people but Russia’s dictator”. He accused the Hungarian prime minister of “contributing to the oiling of the power machinery now occupying Ukraine for the past 12 years”. “The Orbán government is not a tool for peace in Europe but an obstacle,” Karacsony said.
Read also Joint opposition held demonstration at Russian embassy in Budapest
Opposition PM candidate: Orbán failing to address “real problems”
Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition’s joint prime ministerial candidate, said the prime minister “dealt a lot with me” in his speech on Saturday kicking off the official campaign period ahead of the April 3 general election, yet failed to address any of the country’s real problems.
“The only virtue of Viktor Orbán’s speech was that it was his last as prime minister,” Márki-Zay said on Facebook.
“As I guessed it would be, it was an empty speech riddled with confusing visions and fancy phrases,” he said.
Márki-Zay insisted that if the prime minister meant everything he said in his speech, he’d accept his invitation to hold a debate.
The Democratic Coalition (DK) said in a statement that its politicians and activists had spent the day on the campaign trail collecting signatures and listening to people relating their problems Fidesz had been “deaf to in the past 12 years”.
In a statement, the Socialists said the prime minister had addressed the Fidesz elite who were “the winners of targeted redistribution of stolen public money over the past 12 years”.
Fidesz politicians, they added, “look down the Hungarian people from above … they dine in Michelin-starred restaurants, holiday on yachts, fly in helicopters paid for from the proceeds of stolen public money while being blind to the everyday problems of much of society.”
“Orbán hushed up the fact that his party has thrown Hungary into poverty, causing a cost-of-living crisis in the country,” the party said, adding that “if Orbán had nothing to fear, he’d accept Márki-Zay’s invitation to debate, which is a normal practice in a democracy.”
Párbeszéd said that “sealed hermetically from the public, Orbán was telling lies to his followers as a third-rate stand-up artist” while the party’s politicians and activists were out in the streets “engaging in real dialogue with the Hungarian people”.
Párbeszéd said the prime minister had failed to address the country’s real problems such as a crisis of living standards or the poor state of the country’s health care and education.
“No matter what he says, the corrupt and out-of-touch prime minister has become a tired puppet pulled by Putin and China who was struggling not only to be humorous but, moreover, to fight the demons in his head,” the statement added.
Read alsoPM Orbán: “everyone can see, they’re going backwards, not forwards”
Opposition: Orbán and his gang have failed both morally and politically
Hungary’s opposition parties on Sunday called on the human resources ministry to conduct an internal investigation into arrests made in connection with an alleged corruption scandal involving the branch of bailiffs.
Ágnes Kunhalmi of the Socialist Party told a joint opposition press conference on Sunday that media reports on an alleged “mafia network of bailiffs” she said was run by the prime minister’s cabinet chief, a former justice ministry state secretary suspected of having received bribes on a regular basis and the president of the branch of bailiffs, indicated that the state was “effectively running a mafia network of bailiffs”.
She said the government was “trying to pretend that it has nothing to do with the case” even though “the threads all lead to the central government and all the way to the prime minister”.
Kunhalmi called on the ministry to reveal whether it had launched an internal investigation into the affair based on press reports on the alleged corruption case and whether the bribes referred to in the media had made their way to the minister of human resources or the state secretary for higher education.
Bence Tordai, deputy group leader of Párbeszéd, said the government had “done nothing but build a criminal organisation to rule the country over the past 12 years”.
“[Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán and his gang have failed both morally and politically, and voters will be the ones to pass judgement on them on April 3,”
Tordai said, referring to the date of Hungary’s general election.
Mátyás Berecz, a joint opposition MP candidate in Heves County, wanted to know why the state secretary for higher education was staying silent on the affair.
Read alsoBudapest’s mayor wants to investigate corrupt state secretary’s links to Fidesz-controlled districts
If the opposition wins, Hungary will have euro by 2027 – UPDATED
Parties of the united opposition presented their ideas concerning a possible introduction of the euro, taxes, inflation, job creation and budget management at a roundtable organised by the Civitas Institute on Thursday.
Párbeszéd MP Tamás Mellár said the opposition’s plans to introduce the European common currency were “very good”, but added that the programme would take at least five years to complete. Hungary could not at present meet the Maastricht criteria for the introduction of the euro, but aspirants are expected to present a “credible programme” outlining a schedule, he said. Mellar insisted that the current policy of currency devaluation could not be maintained and suggested that the exchange rate of the forint should be kept within “a very narrow” band.
Democratic Coalition MP László Varjú added that “there has been no political will” to join the euro zone in the past ten years despite “there being opportunities”.
LMP’s Antal Csárdi called for a graded personal income tax to replace the single bracket system, adding that minimum wages should be exempt from tax.
Participants in the roundtable also agreed that the VAT system should be changed, and said it was “not without precedent” in Europe to have multiple VAT brackets. Dániel Z. Kárpát of Jobbik said Hungary had the highest VAT rate in Europe on products for children.
Zoltán Vajda, representing the Socialist Party and the Everybody’s Hungary Movement, said the central bank’s policies were “irresponsible”, and criticised the bank’s purchases of government securities and its foundations. He insisted that the central bank’s continual base rate hikes were ineffective and failed to strengthen the national currency.
Márton Ilyés of the Momentum party said that a labour shortage in the country was the result of increasing emigration, with special regard to the health, construction, and farming sectors. He criticised the government for “wasting exorbitant funds” on “attracting companies to Hungary offering similar types of jobs” rather than making efforts to create increasingly higher quality jobs.
In another development Varjú called the 2022 budget “impracticable” and called for a new one. He insisted that transparency of the budget was a pillar of the rule of law. He also called for health services to be made free of charge.
UPDATE – Fidesz’s reaction
Ruling Fidesz said in response that former prime ministers Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai,
“the same people who already destroyed the country once and ran it according to the financial interests of foreign speculators”,
were still in charge of Hungarian left-wing economic policy.
“Under successive left-wing governments, Hungary gave up its economic and financial sovereignty, allowed multinationals and speculators to make out-sized profits at the expense of the Hungarian people and Hungarian businesses, created mass unemployment, and heavily taxed the economy and wages.”
Fidesz added the left wing and its prime ministerial candidate were planning to impose on Hungary the same ill-fated economic policy it had already pursued while winding up the current tax regime “which ensures Hungarian businesses the lowest tax in Europe and Hungarian workers the third lowest”, it added.
Read alsoThese are the cheapest supermarkets in Hungary! – Fresh ranking
Opposition wants to say no on Budapest’s Chinese university on April 3
Parties of the united opposition have demanded that their referendum on unemployment benefits and the Fudan project should be held together with the parliamentary election set for April 3.
István Varga, a candidate of the Democratic Coalition, told a press conference on Thursday that “the government was obviously frightened” by the “huge number” of signatures supporting the referendum initiative, and insisted that it was a “democratic responsibility” of the government to allow the referendum to go ahead on the day requested.
Mihály Gér of the Párbeszéd party said the election office should “prove that it is not playing for time under pressure from above”. He argued that while civil activists had been able to count the signatures in a day, the office had been unable to do the same in four days. He called on the
authorities to complete the job and set the referendum for April 3.
Read also Here is the opposition’s plan to dethrone Orbán – UPDATED
Opposition: govt change crucial for fighting climate change
If Hungary is to have a fighting chance of countering climate change, voters must elect a new government in the April 3 general election, politicians of the united opposition said on Wednesday.
Otherwise, Hungary will be left defenceless against the climate crisis, independent lawmaker Bernadett Szél told a joint press conference, adding that the Fidesz-led government in recent years had carried out over 3,000 investment projects which had ignored green considerations.
Hungary, she said, was
far too dependent on Russian gas imports,
while the insulation systems of buildings remained underdeveloped. A new government would insulate 150,000 flats a year and launch social, political and professional debates on the use of nuclear energy, she said, adding that the opposition saw the expansion of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant as a “corruption project”.
Fully 35 percent of Hungary’s energy mix should be sourced from renewable energy by 2030,
she said.
Erzsébet Schmuck, co-leader of LMP, accused Fidesz of gutting Hungary’s environmental protection authorities so that they could be free to “destroy” the country’s green spaces. “What we’ve been seeing over the past years is that the prime minister vetoed the EU’s stricter climate goals while misleading Hungarian society,” Schmuck said. A new government, she said, would include an independent ministry dealing with environmental protection and climate change.
- Read also: Terrible! Air quality worsens across Hungary
Parbeszed’s Bence Tordai said
Hungary needed cities and districts where all key services were accessible on foot or by bicycle within 15 minutes.
Under a new government, public transport passes would be incorporated into Hungary’s “cafeteria” voucher system, he said, arguing that public and non-motorised transport must become a true alternative to cars. Also, special support would be given to electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, he said, adding that rail lines would be electrified wherever possible and cycling infrastructure improved.
Read alsoPM Orbán: nuclear energy is cheap and climate-friendly
Opposition referendum initiatives to be successful?
The referendum drive of the united opposition aimed at preventing a campus of Fudan University being built in Budapest and calling for an extended period of jobseekers’ allowance has garnered 170,000 signatures, the opposition parties said at a joint press conference on Friday.
Péter Márki-Zay, the prime ministerial candidate of the Socialist, Democratic Coalition (DK), Parbeszed, LMP, Jobbik and Momentum parties, said the referendum would show whether Hungarians wanted a “Chinese communist migrant university” in Budapest’s 9th district or the municipality’s original plans to build a student city providing affordable accommodation.
Commenting on trade and economic policy, Márki-Zay said the opposition was working towards “Hungary looking westwards rather than to the East, a country where competent economic policymaking keeps inflation in check rather than the government capping prices.”
“The true referendum”, he added, would be the general election on April 3, when Hungarians will vote “for or against Fidesz”.
Anna Orosz, a board member of the Momentum Movement, said: “Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is only interested in retaining power, not in people’s everyday problems.” She referred to the current weak level of the forint and wages which she said were worth less than in any other Visegrád Group country. Pensions, she added, had not grown since 2008. Meanwhile, the government was taking out “hundreds of billions in loans to build the Chinese Fudan university, exposing Hungarians to the despotic Chinese state,” she said.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said the referendum drive aimed to shape a country where “decisions would be made based on whether they served the interests of the Hungarian people.”
The Fudan University campus, he said, would “ruin a project that enjoyed bipartisan support”, namely housing for Hungarian students who are not residents of Budapest. The Student City would “lift the city and rural areas alike”, he said.
Extending the jobseekers’ allowance to 270 days from 90 days would show solidarity with people who found themselves in trouble, he said.
Read alsoOpposition launches referendum signature drive in provincial cities
This is how the opposition wants to defeat Orbán
Representatives of parliamentary opposition parties have called on the public to support a referendum initiative which they say would be “a step towards changing the government”.
Péter Márki-Zay, prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition, called on voters to support the referendum “to stem corruption and poverty”. One of the referendum’s two questions aims to provide affordable housing for students as opposed to plans to construct a campus of Fudan University at the site. The other question is about the opposition’s initiative to extend the period of unemployment benefits from three months to nine, which he said was the shortest in the European Union.
The referendum, he insisted, had a “larger significance” and would help the opposition win
“a majority which could release Hungary from the most corrupt government in its history”.
Gergely Karácsony, mayor of Budapest and co-leader of the Párbeszéd party, said that so far the united opposition has gathered almost 100,000 signatures in support of the proposed referendum.
Hungary, he said, needed “a government which serves the people” rather than “rulers who lord it over them”, adding that the six opposition parties had formed an alliance to make that happen.
Democratic Coalition MEP Klára Dobrev said
“each signature is as much contribution as a vote”
to replacing the government and building a “freer, more democratic Hungary”.
Momentum leader Anna Donáth said a longer period of unemployment benefits would help to remedy Hungary’s “existential problems”. Co-leader of the Socialist Party Ágnes Kunhalmi called on citizens to back plans to build a “student city” instead of creating a campus for China’s Fudan University.
Momentum leader Anna Donáth said a longer period of unemployment benefits would help to remedy Hungary’s “existential problems”. Co-leader of the Socialist Party Ágnes Kunhalmi called on citizens to back plans to build a “student city” instead of creating a campus for China’s Fudan University.
LMP co-leader Mate Kanasz-Nagy said that the referendum was motivated by a desire to create greater social security. Conservative Jobbik deputy leader Dániel Z. Kárpát said that an opposition government would “steer the country towards western prosperity rather than in the direction of Eastern dictatorships”. He insisted that the
ruling Fidesz party was “pseudo-patriotic” and “betrayed Hungary’s young people”.
A government run by the current opposition, he added, would offer a rental subsidies, student hostels, and “opportunities to prosper in the homeland”.
Read alsoOpposition pledges to cut incredibly long healthcare waiting lists
Opposition to introduce European minimum wage in Hungary
Representatives of the united opposition, should they win the general election next spring, have pledged to make the personal income tax system fairer and to combat corruption.
They also vowed to introduce a European minimum wage as well as measures promoting a level playing field for entrepreneurs. At a press conference on Tuesday, Márton Ilyés of Momentum said personal income tax brackets would not be hiked but the system could be made fairer by easing taxes for low earners, adding that taxes on the minimum wage were high in Hungary compared with other European Union member states.
Also, the opposition plans measures to
Also, the opposition plans measures to
narrow the gap between underdeveloped regions and more advanced ones,
he said.
László Varjú, a deputy leader of the Democratic Coalition, said business interests linked to the ruling Fidesz party had become rich at the expense of hard-working earners who were struggling to make ends meet. The government’s wage policy was “a mere band aid”, and changes were possible only if a European minimum wage, binding on all governments, were enacted, he said.
Jobbik deputy leader Dániel Z. Kárpát said that despite the government’s policy of keeping Hungarian wages relatively low to make Hungarian labour competitive, minimum and average wages should be raised to be “closer to an acceptable European average”.
Police officers, fire fighters, and health-care employees need to paid better in the hope of retaining their services,
he added.
Párbeszéd deputy group leader Bence Tordai vowed to “rid the Hungarian economy of corruption” and to make public procurement “transparent and fair”. Doing so would make the price of services and goods purchased through that system cheaper, he insisted.
Tordai pledged to scrap the law on strategic government investment projects and to review projects already completed.
The opposition wants Hungary to join the European Public Prosecutor and to set up a national anti-corruption agency,
he said.
An opposition government would review the assets of politicians through a new asset declaration system designed to show “how the wealth of decision makers has grown”, Tordai said.
In response, the deputy group leader of Fidesz said the opposition planned to scrap the minimum wage wholesale. In a video, László Böröcz quoted Péter Márki-Zay, the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition alliance, as saying there was no need for a minimum wage at all. The Fidesz official said Marki-Zay had argued that the minimum wage carried “many disadvantages”.
Böröcz said the minimum wage, however, meant employees were not exposed to the aggressive low-wage practices of multinationals, and he accused Márki-Zay if being “on the side of multinationals” instead of Hungarian employees. “Conversely, Fidesz is on the side of Hungarians, which is why we have raised the minimum wage to 200,000 forints (EUR 540), three times the amount it was last time round when there was left-wing government.”
