LMP

Hungarian green party urges govt assistance to drought-hit farmers

LMP

The opposition LMP party has called for significantly increasing the government’s fund aimed at providing compensation to agricultural producers affected by the current unprecedented droughts.

LMP co-leader Erzsébet Schmuck told a press conference on Thursday that the damage caused by the extremely dry weather in recent months was now in the 1,000 billion forint (EUR 2.5bn) range, and urged that irrigation projects should be launched without delay.

According to Schmuck, the drought fund was made up of a mere 10-12 billion forints, and suggested that Hungarian companies earning significant profits on importing grain, sunflower seeds and soy from Ukraine “could contribute” to the aid to farmers.

Debrecen farmer
Read alsoDK urges govt help to ailing farmers

Career-starting teachers in Hungary get the 2nd lowest wage in the EU

teacher board frustration

Opposition LMP called for an immediate payrise to civil servants at an online press conference by party spokesman József Gál on Sunday.

Gál told the press conference streamed on Facebook that the government had been neglecting workers in the public sectors, including in education, in the past 12 years.

The cost of living has increased significantly and the economic and energy crisis hit especially hard on those that support themselves from public sector wages, he said. Career-starting teachers earn 207,000 forints (EUR 510) per month in Hungary, which is the second lowest sum in the European Union after Bulgaria, he added.

Teachers and special education teachers must be given an immediate payrise of 45 percent and then their wage adjusted to inflation twice a year, he said. Some 80 percent of schools suffer from a shortage of teaching staff as a result of low wages, with around 15,000 teachers “missing from the profession”, he added.

Graduation at SZOTE university
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Hungarian green party elects co-leaders

LMP co-leaders

Opposition LMP elected Erzsébet Schmuck and Péter Ungár co-leaders of the party at a congress on Saturday.

Party spokesman József Gál told an online press conference after the vote that Schmuck’s term in the post had been extended and Ungár’s position would change from parliamentary group leader to party co-leader. The new leaders have been appointed for two years, so they will be in charge during the local council elections and European parliamentary elections of 2024, Gál added.

Schmuck said that in recent months, the public’s consciousness for environmental issues had noticeably increased and LMP played a role in this. She added that her goal was to bring green policies closer to the people in the upcoming period.

Ungár said LMP is the only green party in Hungary and it is determined to show to the people that “the future will either be green or there will be no future at all”.

Read alsoGreen opposition calls for parliamentary decree against shale gas production in Hungary

Opposition party calls Debrecen battery-production plant unacceptable

LMP Hungary battery plant

Green opposition LMP has protested against plans to build a battery-production plant near Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, labelling the project as “unacceptable”.

LMP co-leader Erzsébet Schmuck told a press conference on Wednesday that “rather than aspiring to be a leading battery producer we should think of the ramifications and feel ashamed”. She insisted the project would leave a much too large carbon footprint and insisted that the mining of lithium, a key component for batteries, “leads to environment pollution and poverty” in the countries affected.

The battery plant would also use excessive amounts of water, she said and noted that the current droughts foreshadowed even worse ones in coming years.

“Battery production should be halted, that road is no longer passable,”

Schmuck insisted.

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Green opposition calls for parliamentary decree against shale gas production in Hungary

Green opposition LMP will submit a proposal to parliament aimed at banning shale gas production in a decree, LMP’s co-leader told a press conference on Monday.

Máté Kanász-Nagy insisted that the government “gives totally wrong answers to the energy crisis” such as cutting down protected forests, increasing coal mining and “increasing gas production especially through shale gas”.

Shale gas production is “extremely dangerous and harmful” for the environment, and its drawbacks “highly override any profit or benefit” it may yield, he said. Kanász-Nagy said the production and use of shale gas involved methane emissions, which was detrimental for the climate, while chemicals used in its production would destroy the region’s drinking water stock. He added that several countries had banned shale gas production because of the technology involving a risk of earthquakes.

The energy and climate crisis call for environment-friendly and sustainable answers, such as LMP’s proposal for implementing a building insulation programme, Kanász-Nagy said.

protest budapest tree-felling
Read alsoLots of people protested against tree-felling in Budapest

Online forest conservation service launched in Hungary!

Forestry

Opposition LMP on Sunday said it has launched an online forest conservation service. Meanwhile, Hungary’s agriculture minister vowed to protect Hungary’s forests.

Those who see trees being felled unsustainably are encouraged to report it on the website www.erdofigyelo.hu, Péter Ungár, the party’s parliamentary group leader, said on Facebook. Ungar welcomed that the government’s original plan for easing the rules on tree-felling had been overwritten by a ministerial order. But the cabinet’s plan “is completely wrong”, he said, adding that his party believed everything possible must be done to protect Hungary’s forests.

The group leader argued that trees that were cut down this year could not yet be used to solve the country’s energy problems this winter.

Agriculture minister vows to protect Hungary’s forests

The government will protect Hungary’s “green capital”, the minister of agriculture said on Sunday, adding that the country’s forests were safe even under an energy emergency. Hungary’s forestry experts are managing the country’s state-owned forests responsibly, the ministry cited István Nagy as saying.

“We are not putting Hungary’s green capital in danger, but rather protecting it,” Nagy said, adding that the protracted war in Ukraine and related sanctions imposed on Russia by Brussels had triggered an energy crisis in Europe.

To ensure the security of the energy supply of Hungarian families, the government had to create the conditions to allow the use firewood instead of gas for heating where this is an option, he said. That is why the government decided to ease the rules on tree-felling, the minister added.

Nagy emphasised, however, that “contrary to left-wing fake news”, the felling of native tree species in nature conservation or Natura 2000 areas was still banned. Meanwhile, Nagy said that in the recent period the government had allocated funding for growing 44,000 hectares of new forests, 27,000 hectares of which are already complete.

Hungary’s drinking water supply in danger?

girls water heatwave

The government’s approach to Hungary’s water supply systems is “chaotic”, the head of parliament’s sustainable development committee, delegated by green opposition LMP, said on Tuesday.

László Lóránt Keresztes told an online press briefing that the government was working to “take over those systems through blackmail and threatening them with funding cuts” if they resisted. The government’s actions risk “unstable, unreliable drinking water supplies” in the medium term, he insisted.

According to Keresztes, the water supply situation was “difficult” in 2010, when Fidesz returned to power, “but since then the system has been rapidly deteriorating in the absence of adequate financing.”

Over 80 percent of the local water supply systems have been labelled “risky”, while on average 22 percent of piped water is lost due to leaks, costing 30 billion forints (EUR 74.2m) each year, Keresztes said.

Hungary would need an extra 3,000 billion forints in the next 15 years to ensure “the most important public service”, or 150-200 billion forints each year, Keresztes said. He also proposed that while waterworks should be owned publicly, they should be managed by local governments rather than centrally, as “municipalities are in the best position to notice and manage problems effectively.”

Drought Lake Velence
Read alsoLMP calls on government to tackle water crisis

Lots of people protested against tree-felling in Budapest

protest budapest tree-felling

Opposition LMP on Friday staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Agriculture against a recent government decree easing the felling of trees.

In a speech, Erzsébet Schmuck, the party’s co-leader, demanded that the “crazy decree” be repealed. She said the consequences of climate change were increasingly severe, with the central and eastern parts of Hungary suffering from desertification, “a process which will be aggravated by this government decision”.

Hungary would need six times its 2 million hectares of forest area to achieve climate neutrality, Schmuck said. “If there won’t be any forests, then sooner or later we won’t be here, either,” she said, adding that the government’s measures would result in “none of the climate goals being met”.

László Lóránt Keresztes, the head of parliament’s sustainable development committee, said the government needed to be confronted with the consequences of its actions, insisting that “the disgraceful deforestation decree is equivalent to the destruction of nature”. He said scientists, environmental activists and mayors, including ones from the ruling parties, had spoken out against the decree.

Keresztes called on President Katalin Novák to “take a stand against the destruction of national assets”.

Péter Ungár, LMP’s parliamentary group leader, said that while Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was not responsible for climate change, he was the one to blame “for us having a government that isn’t preparing us for the effects of climate change and for why we aren’t doing anything to mitigate them”.

Those who oppose the decree “will prevent this destruction of nature with their physical presence, barricades and local groups set up across the country”, he said.

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LMP turns to local councils over ‘deforestation’

Máté Kanász-Nagy

Opposition LMP on Thursday said it is turning to local councils for help in stopping “deforestation” in Hungary.

Máté Kanász-Nagy, the party’s co-leader, told a news conference that local councils could prohibit the logging of forests under their ownership and put pressure on other forest owners to do the same.

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LMP will use every legal and civil mechanism available to prevent mass tree fellings under a government decree issued last week allowing the lumbering of state-owned forests, Kanász-Nagy said.

He said the decree would result in an “intolerable degree of deforestation during a time of climate change, droughts and water shortages”.

No other government in the European Union wants to resolve the climate and energy crises with the clear-cutting of forests and the destruction of green areas, he added.

President János Áder and PM Viktor Orbán
Read alsoHungarian opposition LMP turns to former president over tree-felling decree

Top court will decide about the government’s tree-felling decree

Justice Court Igazság Bíróság Legal Rights

Green opposition LMP has decided to appeal to the Constitutional Court against a recent government decree allowing the felling of trees, which its opponents see as detrimental to Hungary’s forests.

LMP co-leader Erzsébet Schmuck told a press conference on Monday that the decree, aimed at providing sufficient firewood for the heating season, would “remove all restrictions and in fact allow clear cutting even nature reserves”. “No government in Europe would start cutting down forests amid a climate and water crisis,” she insisted, adding fresh-cut wood was not suitable for heating.

Forests produce oxygen, help cool the environment and retain water, thus slowing down climate change, Schmuck said, adding that the decree would delay Hungary’s meeting its climate goals by at least 50 years.

LMP spokesman József Gál said already 25,000 people had supported his party’s signature drive against the contested decree since it was launched last Friday. “Hands off Hungarian forests!” the spokesman added.

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Petition against stepping up firewood production launched

Felling

The opposition LMP launched a petition against government measures to increase the use of firewood, LMP lawmaker Bernadett Bakos said on Sunday.

As part of the effort to combat the energy crisis, the government eased restrictions on tree-felling in a decree published on Thursday, drawing criticism from opposition parties which said the measure undermined climate protection efforts.

Bakos told a press conference that no other government in Europe was trying to ease the energy crisis by “cutting down forests”. The measure is short-term damage control rather than a solution, she said. LMP called for the decree to be withdrawn immediately. The petition garnered 13,000 signatures on the first day, Bakos said. The party is holding a protest in front of the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday, she said.

Felling
Read alsoGovernment reacted on concerns regarding extended felling

Opposition parties slam government over energy policies

Natural Gas Energy Supply

Opposition parties on Saturday castigated the government for preferring fossil fuels to renewables in attempts to handle the energy shortfall.

Instead of felling more trees, insulating housing would be a better solution, LMP co-leader Máté Kanász-Nagy told a press briefing on Saturday. Citing a recent government decree, he said plans were to destroy forests for firewood instead of exploiting green solutions to the energy crisis. Instead of “heating Hungarian streets with Russian gas”, an insulation scheme would help to reduce bills while also helping to create tens of thousands of jobs, he said, adding that 650,000 homes could be insulated by the end of the current parliamentary cycle in 2026.

The LMP politician also claimed possible savings of 420,000 tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions and 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Meanwhile, Rebeka Szabó, Párbeszéd’s co-leader, said the ban on wind farms should he lifted and the tax on solar panels and heat pumps abolished. In a statement today, she also decried the government’s decree on firewood as “pointless and harmful”, saying Hungary’s native forests were under “serious danger”. The possible consequences of deforestation, she added, were worse air pollution, water shortages and drought.

fuel prices gas station petrol
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LMP calls on government to tackle water crisis

Drought Lake Velence

The opposition LMP party has called on the government to tackle Hungary’s “water crisis”, which it qualified as “graver than the energy crisis”.

At a press conference on Thursday, László Lóránt Keresztes, the head of parliament’s sustainable development committee, called for a new approach to water management.

In Hungary water is quickly drained away than retained, so more water flows over the borders than flows into the country, Keresztes said.

harvest tractor agriculture grain
Read alsoHungarian government supporting irrigation systems

He accused the government of not doing enough to protect rivers like the Sajó — which has carried contamination from a Slovak mine into Hungary — and the Transylvanian tributaries of the River Tisza.

“The government has also given up preserving drinking water infrastructure, and brought the water utility system to the brink of collapse,” he said.

Besides helping irrigation, the green party also envisages support for farmers in restoring the soil’s water retention, he said.

Keresztes urged an economic policy that would not put future water supplies at risk. “The government is currently doing the opposite, with measures such as making battery manufacturing a strategic sector,” he said.

He proposed talks with civil organisations and experts on finding solutions to “the water crisis”.

fuel prices gas station petrol
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Hungarian parliament to hold extraordinary session on Monday

demonstration KATA

The opposition parties have called an extraordinary session of parliament to discuss proposals regarding changes to the small business tax (kata), to be held on August 8.

The Momentum party said in a statement that the opposition called on parliament to withdraw the amendment to the kata tax, which limited the circle of SMEs entitled to use it. The opposition also called on government parties to adopt opposition proposals to aid people hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis in the country, Momentum said.

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At the same time, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis “made it clear in advance that his party won’t attend the meeting, which showed that Fidesz do not care about the fate of Hungarians and Hungarian families,” the opposition statement said.

Should the meeting have quorum, the agenda will include abolishing utility fee raises, a home insulation programme, the food crisis, a climate pass to motivate motorists to change to public transport, and VAT cuts on certain essential products, proposed by the Socialists, Democratic Coalition, Párbeszéd, LMP and Jobbik parties.

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Hungarian opposition calls for special parliament session over ‘cost-of-living crisis’

Six opposition parliamentary groups have called for a special session of parliament to be convened on Aug. 8 to discuss their proposals to mitigate “the cost-of-living crisis” they say has gripped the country.

Representatives of Momentum, Democratic Coalition, Parbeszed, the Socialists, LMP, and Jobbik told a joint press conference about their bill to withdraw changes to the tax on small businesses (kata) and keep the full cap on household energy bills and the price of basic foodstuffs in place. Further, they propose VAT cuts, a public transport “climate pass” — a 5,000 forint monthly voucher to encourage car users to switch to public transport — and a nationwide home insulation programme.

Momentum’s Miklós Hajnal said the special session would present an opportunity to postpone any changes made to kata to next January to allow time for consultations with advocacy groups and to introduce any changes. Meanwhile, a looming “social crisis” in Hungary during “this age of austerity” would also require immediate action, he said, accusing the government of getting Hungarians “to pay for its wasteful spending during the elections and for its failed economic policy”.

Olga Kálmán of DK said the party called on the government to withdraw its “utility price rise” and draft regulations for “family-friendly, economically sustainable utility price cuts”. She accused Prime Minister Viktor Orban of “lying as he talked of protecting the utility price caps while raising prices and implementing the largest austerity package of all time.”

Párbeszéd group leader Bence Tordai said Hungary had been “hit by a brutal food crisis”, with skyrocketing prices and growing inflation. The party calls on the government to boost food self-sufficiency, reintroduce the strategic food reserves abolished in 2016, and to take steps to adapt to climate change, he said.

LMP proposed a “climate pass” for public transport to help those hit hard by rising fuel prices and to encourage motorists to use public transport.

Ágnes Kunhalmi of the Socialists said the party called for launching a home insulation programme as a means to ensure sustainable utility price cuts for families.

Jobbik called for VAT cuts on basic foodstuffs and products used mostly by families raising children. The government should also waive VAT on gas, electricity and firewood, parliamentary group leader László Lukács said.

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Ruling Fidesz said in reaction that the left had “fallen apart” after the spring general election and were now “subserviently doing as they are told” by Democratic Coalition leader Ferenc Gyurcsany, “setting the stage for him”. Europe is suffering from the effects of the war in Ukraine and the related “sanctions imposed by Brussels”, including wartime inflation and a wartime economic and energy crisis, Fidesz said in a statement.

“If it were up to the left, this crisis would have swept Hungary away by now because the left wants to drag the country into war and make the people pay the price of the war,” the party said. The measures protecting Hungarian families from drastic price increases are unparalleled across Europe, Fidesz added.

fuel Hungary foreigners price cap
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Opposition DK: Orbán’s Fidesz brought Hungary to ruin

Viktor Orbán

The opposition parties said on Saturday that the government’s latest decision “to partially withdraw” capped fuel prices represented a severe hit on small businesses, an additional step that boosts inflation and a move away from green solutions.

The Democratic Coalition (DK) said in a statement that ruling Fidesz was gradually withdrawing from more and more drivers the possibility of buying cheap fuel. “This will continue until so few drivers are eligible to buy fuel at the regulated price that the scheme can be cancelled without anyone noticing,” it added.

“First, over 12 years, they brought Hungary to ruin, then lied to the whole country before the election and since then, they have been introducing austerity measures, raising taxes, utility fees and fuel prices, making people pay for the consequences of their government,” DK said.

Jobbik said the decision was a severe hit on small businesses whose operation had already been hampered by decisions in recent weeks. The government allowed only a few hours for small businesses to prepare for having to pay market prices at the petrol station, it added.

Jobbik reiterated a party proposal to waiver VAT on utility fees, provide direct support to those that suffered from recent changes to the itemised small business tax KATA and utility fees, offer preferences to families with one and two children and extend the cap on utility fees to small businesses.

Párbeszéd said in a statement that the partial withdrawal of fuel price caps would result in more expensive transport costs and businesses’ increased costs will be transferred to consumers.

Momentum proposed reducing road tolls affecting transporters. “It could reduce inflation running amok so as to prevent the brutal petrol price increases from resulting in brutal food price increase,” the party said.

LMP said the decision was proof that Fidesz had “an aversion to green solutions”. Hungary’s dependence on fossil energy is the result of 12 years of faulty government policies, it added. The party slammed the government for its refusal to comment on its proposal to introduce a monthly 5,000 forint (EUR 12) pass for all means of public transport.

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‘Water crisis’ in Hungary?

Water crisis in Hungary

Opposition LMP has said it is turning to President Katalin Novák with the request that she facilitate cooperation with the government on addressing the issues of increasingly long droughts, dried-up lakes and water-related problems faced by farmers in Hungary.

László Lóránt Keresztes, the head of parliament’s sustainable development committee, told a press conference on Wednesday that he had sent an open letter to the president asking her to take steps to allow scientists and representatives of professional and civil groups to hold talks with government officials.

Keresztes said the government had failed to address Hungary’s “water crisis” for over a decade, arguing that only 5 percent of the necessary funding had been earmarked for water management in both this year’s and next year’s budgets.

Priority is given to making the water’s passage as quick as possible instead of retaining it, even though 95 percent of Hungary’s water resources flow in from and out to other countries, Keresztes said. He said the government had failed to address the issue of more water flowing out of the country than the amount that comes in.

The government’s “bad policies” have pushed

the country’s public water works to the brink of collapse,

Keresztes said, insisting that the government was incapable of protecting Hungary’s water base. At the same time, it supports heavily water-intensive investment projects like battery production, he added.

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Minimum wage for degree holders to be introduced in Hungary?

university_minimum_wage_degree

Opposition LMP on Sunday called on the government to introduce a minimum wage for people with a higher education degree, saying it would be 30 percent higher than the minimum wage for skilled workers.

A minimum wage for degree holders is necessary because “public service wages have been losing their value for years now”, Krisztina Hohn, the party’s public welfare and family affairs spokesperson, told a press conference. Civil servants and public employees have not received wage hikes in over ten years, she added.

Hohn said this was a “huge mistake” on the government’s part, arguing that the public sector was facing a severe labour shortage. “A minimum wage for degree holders would remedy the problem,” she said, adding that it would also make teachers, social workers and local council employees feel respected.

LMP also insists that public employee wages should be reviewed on a yearly basis and increased according to inflation, Hohn said. This, she said, would cost the budget between 250 billion and 300 billion forints (EUR 629m-755m) this year, adding that the costs would be covered by a new corporate tax rate imposed on companies making excessive profits.

Hohn said many people were having to work second and third jobs just to make ends meet, but they were now prevented from doing so because of the changes made to the itemised tax for small businesses (kata).

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