Socialists

Socialists slam ‘underhand’ Vodafone sale over EUR 31.3M loss

Vodafone Hungary service provider telecom

The Socialist Party is filing a complaint to the authorities in connection with the “underhand” sale of Vodafone to a state-owned fund which “recorded a loss of around 13 billion forints [EUR 31.3m]” during the sale of the telecommunications company in the period of less than a year, and the opposition alleges that the state exchanged high-value shares for ones of lower value in opaque transactions that produced losses seriously detrimental to national interests.

The state ploughed billions of forints of public funds into telecommunications and IT company 4iG, the majority owner of Antenna Hungaria, to bolster its market position, thereby squandering 13 billion forints of public assets in order to give a private company a competitive advantage, the Socialists said in a statement on Tuesday. The statement said the transactions raised suspicion of mismanagement and negligence, adding that it was justified for the authorities to launch an investigation.

The statement said on January 31, 2023, the state fund in question, Corvinus, purchased a 49 percent stake in Vodafone Hungary for 323.4 billion forints. Later, it added that 19.5 percent of shares were exchanged for 128.7 billion forints. Two days later, Corvinus exchanged the 19.5 percent Vodafone shares in other telecommunication companies, Yettel and Cetin, during which the value of Vodafone shares was set at 125.7 billion forints, 3 billion forints less than two days earlier. Then, in December 2023, the statement added that Corvinus sold its Yettel and Cetin shares for 115.8 billion forints, recording a further loss of 9.9 billion forints.

One Hungary instead of Vodafone

As we wrote yesterday, listed ICT company 4iG rebranded the commercial telecommunications services of its units Vodafone Magyarorszag, DIGI, Antenna Hungaria and Invitech under the One aegis from January 1. Read details HERE: Vodafone is gone! Acquirer One Hungary opens flagship store in Budapest.

Also, it’s interesting that Vodafone received a gigantic fine from Hungarian authorities before the transaction; details are HERE.

New National Bank governor would “further weaken” the forint, says Gyurcsány’s DK

national bank forint nbh new governor

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) and Socialist parties have criticised the prime minister’s decision to nominate Mihaly Varga, the incumbent finance minister, to serve as the next central bank governor, saying he would “further weaken” the forint.

DK spokesman Balázs Barkóczi told an online press conference that by nominating Varga to head the National Bank of Hungary, Viktor Orbán had “essentially sentenced the forint to death”.

He said the forint is currently trading at 412 against the euro, but the 2025 draft budget assumes a EUR/HUF exchange rate of 397.5. Barkoczi insisted that the draft budget and Varga’s nomination were the reason “why the forint is falling again”.

national bank forint nbh new governor
Forint in trouble after Varga’s nomination? Photo: FB/MNB

Socialist Party lawmaker Zoltán Vajda said the prime minister should have nominated “an independent leader recognised in the field” to head the central bank instead of a “party politician”.

“It had been suspected for months that Mihály Varga will be the next NBH governor, which is another concerning development when it comes to the future of Hungary’s economy,” Vajda said in a statement.

He said the prime minister’s decision suggested “that the government doesn’t intend to make any changes to the policies that have led to the forint’s depreciation and the weakening of the financial security of Hungarian families”.

Read also:

  • Forint hits new low against the euro as exchange rate surges past 413
  • PM Orbán nominated new Hungarian National Bank governor, forint strengthening, government change comes

Socialists propose fund for preventing violence against women in Hungary

gurmai Socialists

The opposition Socialists have proposed the government should set up a fund for the prevention of violence against women and to include the fight against domestic violence as a subject in the national curriculum, the party’s parliamentary deputy group leader said on Monday, marking International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

In Hungary, between 10,000-12,000 instances of domestic violence are reported to the police each year, Zita Gurmai told MTI in a statement, adding that more than one-fourth of the women become target of physical abuse even if they are pregnant.

“It is shocking, but still a fact that one woman dies in Hungary every week because of domestic violence.”

Authorities often attribute less than required importance to violence against women, said Gurmai. As regards sex crimes, investigations too often turn into “blaming the victim” with the authorities focusing their attention to “how the victim’s behaviour could have motivated the crime”.

According to the United Nations” website, women’s rights activists have observed 25 November as a day against gender-based violence since 1981. This date was selected to honour the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler.

read also: Hungarian socialist party elects new leader

Hungarian socialist party elects new leader

socialists imre komjáthi

The opposition Socialist Party elected Imre Komjáthi as its leader at the party’s congress on Saturday.

Komjáthi, a former co-leader of the party who on Saturday was elected for a two-year period, told a press conference after the vote that the party congress chose Lajos Korózs to be the deputy chairman and István Hiller the head of the national board. Komjáthi said the congress marked the start of the Socialist Party’s 2026 election campaign.

socialists imre komjáthi
Imre Komjáthi. Photo: MTI/Hegedüs Róbert

“We will be the human voice of Hungarian political life,” Komjáthi said. “The Socialist Party will be the left-wing conscience of Hungarian political life.” Komjáthi, who is also an MP, told MTI that his party’s most important promise was that it would have a parliamentary group after the 2026 election. The first step towards achieving this, he added, was finding their 106 individual candidates. He said that having visited the party’s local chapters around the country over the last two years, he was aware of the state of the party, adding that the starting point was “promising”.

Komjáthi said 2026 was “too far away” for the party to be concerned with forming alliances, adding that in the summer they had reached out to the left-wing parties and movements that were “finding their place”. The Socialists, he said, wanted to be a home for these left-wing movements, but “time will tell if this will evolve into an electoral party or an umbrella organisation”. He said he will nominate a new party director who is not a politician at the first meeting of the party’s board. Komjáthi and Ágnes Kunhalmi resigned as the Socialists’ co-leaders in June over the result of the European Parliament and local elections.

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Not everyone agrees: Opposition slams Orbán’s controversial speech

orbán tusványos

Opposition parties have criticised Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech at the Bálványos Summer University in Baile Tusnad, Romania, saying it had failed to address the problems of Hungarians.

Tisza Party’s criticism

The Respect and Freedom (Tisza) party said the prime minister’s speech had been about “Budapest-centric global politics” rather than the problems of the Hungarian people. The party criticised Orbán for failing to mention the state of the healthcare and education sectors, “the three million people living below the subsistence level and the hundreds of thousands who have fled abroad”.

Democratic Coalition’s criticism

The Democratic Coalition (DK) said Orbán’s politics wasn’t “building, but losing Hungary” and endangered the Hungarian people. “The blabber about a national strategy doesn’t obscure the strategic weakening of Hungary that is a consequence of the PM’s running amok historically and politically,” DK said in a statement.

Socialists’ criticism

The Socialist Party criticised the speech for not mentioning “the government’s misguided economic policy, the one billion euro loan taken from China, high inflation and the high public debt”. The party said it hoped the PM “was not laying the groundwork for pulling Hungary out of the European Union”.

Jobbik’s criticism

Jobbik-Conservatives welcomed the prime minister’s announcement on doubling family tax breaks for children, but said their solution would be to increase the tax break each year by at least the previous year’s inflation rate.

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Orbán believes pro-peace forces will prevail in Europe

Orbán believes pro-peace forces will prevail in Europe

Pro-peace forces will sooner or later become the majority in Europe, Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director, told a panel discussion at the Bálványos Summer University in Baile Tusnad, in central Romania. “Time is on their side,” he said.

He told a roundtable discussion on party politics that the Ukrainian decision to impose limitations on the amount of crude to be delivered through the country by Russian-owned Lukoil was linked to “the peace mission and Hungary’s stance on the war”.

“In just two weeks we managed to make waves causing serious problems in the entire pro-war force field. There is now an alternative strategy, represented by Hungary, and to be tabled at the meeting of European heads of state and government. This is a historic situation, and Hungary has a historic responsibility to do whatever it can for peace,” Orbán said.

orbán balázs political director Hungarian presidency 2024

The majority of Europeans want peace, European policy must change

Regarding Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “peace mission”, LMP group leader Máté Kanász-Nagy said his party was pro-peace. At the same time, he said he had not seen “concrete results” of the peace mission: “I’m not sure it has brought peace closer.”

László György Lukács of Jobbik – Conservatives said the party had always stood up for “a fair peace”. “If that is the substance of the peace mission, Jobbik will support it.”

Lőrinc Nacsa of the junior ruling Christian Democrats (KDNP) slammed Jobbik, saying that Márton Gyöngyösi, the party’s leader until two weeks ago, had “voted for 17 pro-war decisions in the European Parliament”.

lőrinc nacsa kdnp
Source: Facebook/Nacsa Lőrinc

Orbán said peace was conditional on restoring communication channels. “How do they want peace if they refuse to speak with one of the [warring] parties?” The policies of the past 2.5 years “are a dead end”, he said.

He added that the Ukrainian leadership of the western Transcarpathia region of the country would be open to cooperating with Hungary, “but Kyiv is waging war; they want to beat the Russians. Due to its pro-peace stance, Kyiv politicians have identified Hungary as a political opponent,” he said.

Central Europe now has a party family in the EU

On the matter of the “quarantining” of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, Lukács said no groups should be quarantined “for their role on a political side or its opinions”. “Lots of people have voted for those forces, and what happened is not right,” he said.

Orbán said that, similarly to the boycott of the EU Council meetings during Hungary’s presidency, the step was “revenge — insignificant, petty revenge”. The European People’s Party is now “as much in lockstep with the leftist mainstream as for example the Greens are,” he said. The true “logic of power”, he said, was whether a party belonged to a party family or not. “Up to now central Europe had no party family; now it has one,” he said, adding that that fact alone would boost the region’s ability to represent its interests.

Nacsa said the European Commission should “return to its original role” and to the rule of law. Instead, the Commission “is using so-called legal tools as a political cudgel” and regularly employs double standards against Hungary, he said.

Read also:

  • Hungary took out a gigantic Chinese loan in secret – avoiding bankruptcy? – Read more HERE
  • First Hungarian-made Lynx rolls off assembly line – PHOTOS and more in THIS article

There is a great need for leftist progressivism in Hungary, Socialists believe

There is a great need for leftist progressivism in Hungary, Socialists believe

Ágnes Kunhalmi and Imre Komjathi resigned as co-leaders of the opposition Socialist Party at a meeting of the party’s national board on Saturday over the result of the June 9 European Parliament and local elections.

Komjáthi said on Facebook that the party’s leadership had concluded that they had to take responsibility for and draw the necessary conclusions from the result. He added that the party would now regroup and start building itself up again.

Kunhalmi said that because her appointment as the party’s co-leader had come from the national board, it was at the board meeting that she had to announce her resignation. In a Facebook post, she said she remained convinced that “there is no good society without a left wing”, adding that there was a “great need” for leftist progressivism in Hungary.

Read also:

  • Socialist lawmaker loses immunity: bribe investigation continues

Featured image: Ágnes Kunhalmi in the parliament

Hungarian opposition parties hold campaign closing events

péter magyar demonstration budapest opposition

The opposition Respect and Freedom (Tisza) Party held a campaign closing event on Saturday, where party head Péter Magyar called on people to vote at tomorrow’s election, saying “bad and corrupt politicians are elected by citizens who don’t vote”.

Opposition parties’ campaign closing events

At the event held at Budapest’s Heroes’ Square, Magyar said people should reject all attempts of influencing as well as irregular ballot papers.

péter magyar demonstration budapest
Péter Magyar’s demonstration on 8 June. According to preliminary estimates, hundreds of thousands of people took part. Photo: Daily News Hungary/Mercédesz Hetzmann

The party aims to eliminate the power of those with privilege, restore the prestige of education and rebuild health care, he said. Tisza would “eliminate fear-mongering propaganda”, he said.

Should Tisza come to power, it would introduce the euro, join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, “bring home thousands of billions [of funding] from the EU”, introduce a minimum pension and stop the influx of Asian guest workers, he said.

“If you don’t want Hungary to be the most corrupt European country, vote for the Tisza Party,” he said.

At a separate event in Szigetszentmiklós, near Budapest, Klára Dobrev, the top MEP candidate of the allied Democratic Coalition-Socialist-Dialogue parties said the alliance was going to “replace Fidesz from the left”.

The leftist alliance wants a fairer country with more solidarity, and a strong Europe “we call the United States of Europe”, Dobrev said. She said her alliance was facing three right-wing parties: Fidesz, the Our Homeland Movement and the Tisza Party which “all talk about Brussels and double standards and would weaken Hungary” by weakening Europe.

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Breaking: Fidesz-backed Szentkirályi withdraws candidacy for Budapest mayor

alexandra szentkirályi

Alexandra Szentkirályi is withdrawing her candidacy for Budapest mayor and asking her supporters to vote for Dávid Vitézy.

Szentkirályi, the candidate of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats, announced her withdrawal on Facebook early on Friday. She asked her supporters to vote for Vitézy as Budapest mayor and for the Fidesz-Christian Democrats list.

Now three candidates, Gergely Karácsony (Párbeszéd-DK-MSZP), Dávid Vitézy (LMP) and András Grundtner (Mi Hazánk Mozgalom/Our Homeland Movement) remain in the race; however, a close fight is expected to be decided between Gergely Karácsony and Dávid Vitézy.

Vitézy and Karácsony reacted

Vitézy, who has been put forward by green opposition party LMP and a local association, said “the first win is there the second will come on Sunday”.

He said on Facebook that when he embarked on his campaign he knew he would have to defeat the government policy associated with transport minister Janos Lazar, “which is stymieing all key developments”, as well as the “national political ambitions” of Gergely Karácsony, the incumbent, “who complains and procrastinates while doing nothing”.

He said that as mayor he would not form a coalition with either Fidesz or the leftist Democratic Coalition. Budapest and the capital’s companies would be “run by professionals rather than failed party cliques”.

“Gyurcsany’s people are off, but Orban’s people can’t take their place either,” he said, referring to the former Socialist prime minister who leads the Democratic Coalition and the current premier, respectively.

Reacting, Karácsony said on Facebook: “So the charade is over.”

He wrote that Szentkirályi’s withdrawal was part of a “dark and cynical political deal” and that Vitézy was “Fidesz’s candidate”.

He called the “deal” a “betrayal” of voters. “Fidesz has betrayed its voters just as it has betrayed Budapest over the last five years,” he added.

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EP elections 2024: pollsters expect 5 Hungarian parties to clinch EP mandates

orbán fans EP mandates

The ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat (KDNP) parties are expected to receive most mandates at the European parliamentary elections on June 9, with another four parties standing a chance to make it to the EP, the representatives of five polling institutions said in a roundtable discussion on Thursday.

Presenting their findings, heads of the Alapjogokért Központ, the Nézőpont institute, Magyar Társadalomkutató, Real-PR 93 and Századvég agreed that the runner-up was likely to be the Tisza party followed by the alliance of the Democratic Coalition (DK), the Socialists and Párbeszéd, with the radical Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) and the Two-tailed Dog party (MKKP) bringing up the rear. As we wrote earlier, 11 EP lists to compete in Hungary on 9 June.

Nézőpont head Ágoston Sámuel Mraz said the pollster’s survey, conducted on a 1,000-strong sample between May 20 and 22, found that Fidesz-KDNP had the support of 47 percent of voters, while 24 percent supported the Tisza party, 9 percent the DK-Socialist-Parbeszed alliance, and Mi Hazank and MKKP stood at 7 percent each. Other parties “have no chance of getting in”, he said.

While turnout is notoriously difficult to forecast, it is expected to be similar to that of previous elections, Mraz said. The last EP election mobilised 43 percent of voters, while 48 percent turned out for the last local election, he said.

Similarly, Alapjogokért has found that the ruling parties’s support was the strongest (47 percent), with Tisza at 26 percent, the DK-Socialist-Parbeszed group at 8 percent, and Mi Hazank and MKKP at 6 percent each.

Gyula Juhász of Magyar Társadalomkutató cited a larger survey conducted over 3 weeks that probed the opinions of 4,000 voters, saying that the results showed Fidesz-KDNP’s “enormous” lead growing as the elections drew near, and stood at 51 percent at the time of polling. Meanwhile, Tisza polled at 25 percent, DK-Socialists-Párbeszéd at 8 percent, while Mi Hazánk and MKKP were teetering near the parliamentary threshold at 4-5 percent, he said.

read also: Interesting figures: Hungarians living in Western Europe ‘immune’ to Fidesz

Mayor Karácsony: Life expectancy at stake on the 2024 municipal election in Budapest this June

Budapest Mayor Karácsony

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, who heads the list of the Párbeszéd, Democratic Coalition and Socialist parties in the Budapest municipal election, said on Saturday that he will aim to extend residents’ life expectancy by five years during his next term if re-elected.

Karácsony noted that average life expectancy in Budapest is shorter by five years than in major European cities and said this encouraged him that “everything we do — whether it’s about city transport, housing or culture — should serve to make life better in the capital”.

“Let us set politics back on its feet so that it will be about our lives,” he said. “Let Budapest be a prosperous, resilient city; let it be our little republic; let it be our shared home, a city where it’s better to live and where we can live longer, at least by five years,” Karácsony said.

The mayor said Hungary had the highest ratio of deaths from preventable causes among European Union member states, which would not change without a fundamental reform of the state health sector, but there was a lot that a municipality could do about the matter. He said the city would continue its outpatient care programme in which around 14,000 free CT and MRI scans have been conducted in the capital since November 2020.

Big municipal housing programme on the horizon

Karácsony also talked about what he called a “housing crisis” in Budapest and pledged to launch a big municipal housing programme financed from EU funds to create more affordable housing in the city.

On the issue of homelessness, he said the city council’s homelessness strategy was not only about the symptoms, but rather about helping people in need avoid losing their homes, adding that 7.4 billion forints (EUR 19.2m) would be spent on this from EU funding.

The mayor also touched on the issue of air pollution in Budapest, which, he said, was mainly caused by heating and transport. He pledged to spend 1 billion forints also from EU funds to support households struggling to pay energy bills and 2.5 billion forints from the city’s own funds to set up a building renovation fund, which would be expanded to 10 billion forints later. He said 100 billion forints would be spent on community transport from EU funds, adding that the aim was not to eliminate car traffic in Budapest but a balance had to be found and the city needed a tolerable level of traffic.

Read also:

Criminal complaint filed against Hungarian President Sulyok

tamás sulyok president

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) is filing a criminal complaint on suspicion of high-value fraud and abuse of office in a case involving President Tamás Sulyok, DK MEP Klára Dobrev said on Friday.

tamás sulyok president
Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok in April 2024. Photo: MTI/Bruzák Noémi

Dobrev, a list leader of the DK-MSZP-Párbeszéd parties at this year’s European Parliament election, told a press conference that Sulyok as a lawyer had been involved in “an illegal transfer of Hungarian farmland to foreigners” in the early 2000s.

The current President was a trustee-on-delivery for the Austrian owners of Agronomia Kft, which was “managing land fraud” between January 14, 2013 and December 23, 2015, Dobrev said. During the period, Botanic-Garden, a company registered in Sopron, in western Hungary, was set up as Agronomia’s successor and Sulyok was also a trustee-on-delivery for this company between November 13, 2014 and February 15, 2016, she added.

Certified public records show that the President was active as a lawyer until October 4, 2019, although he had been a constitutional judge since September 27, 2014 and the deputy leader of the Constitutional Court since April 1, 2015, Dobrev said. In line with the law on the Constitutional Court, a constitutional judge must not carry out any economic activity, including working as a lawyer, she added.

When Sulyok became the trustee-on-delivery of the company registered in Sopron, he was already a Constitutional Court judge, she said.

Sulyok “knowingly violated his oath as a Constitutional Court judge and acted serving the interests of an Austrian land mafia company,” she added.

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Hungarian ‘shadow PM’: Strong Europe needed

opposition party DK Klára Dobrev europe

Klára Dobrev, the leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition, Socialist and Párbeszéd parties for the EP elections, said she wanted European wages, pensions and health care, at the three parties’ joint celebration of International Labour Day and the 20th anniversary of Hungary’s EU accession, in Budapest on Wednesday.

“I want a strong Europe, one that is able to care for all Hungarian people, even if it requires defending them against the [incumbent] government,” Dobrev said in City Park, arguing that “Hungary’s EU membership and the prestige of labour are under attack from the right.”

“Although Hungary is there, in Europe, the country has been shamed, Hungarians have the lowest wages and pensions in Europe, their country has the worst level of health-care services and the level of public education has deteriorated most here while the family circles of [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán have stolen the unprecedented amount of money pouring onto the country,” she said. “This must be stopped,” the DK politician said.

The Hungarian government, Dobrev said, had also intimidated Hungarian workers by threatening “to replace them with cheaper foreign labour if they dare to complain”.

“Only a left-wing, green, social-democrat government will be able to pull Hungary out of this nightmare,” she said, urging opposition parties to join forces.

Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest and a Párbeszéd politician, said that “twenty years after Hungary’s EU accession, the tone of the anniversary’s celebration is bitter-sweet”. “Although we must value and should not forget that we are a member of Europe’s most peaceful and most progressive political alliance, we must also see that the other countries that joined 20 years ago along with Hungary have made better use of the opportunity to lift their nation,” he said.

The EU, Karácsony said, was not perfect either. “It is not strong enough, gives too much to the elite and too little to the people,” the mayor said, adding that “we want a stronger Europe, because we believe in the notion that only a stronger Europe could ensure Hungary’s national sovereignty”.

“A parasite state will never use EU funds in a smart way,” Karácsony said. “Those monies are missing from the education and health-care sectors, from the city of Budapest and the smallest Hungarian villages. The state must be changed, service must be chosen instead of ruling over a country.”

Imre Komjáthi of the Socialists pledged to strengthen trade unions, “which are the immune system of working people and society”.

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Hungarian opposition: We know how to replace Orbán’s regime

dobrev mep eu election dk hungarian opposition

The Social Democrat-Green coalition is a fulcrum of the Hungarian opposition that is present throughout the country, knows how to replace “Viktor Orbán’s regime” and “also knows what do afterwards”, Klára Dobrev, the leader of the Democratic Coalition-Socialists-Párbeszéd-Greens European Parliament list, said at a campaign event in Eger, in northern Hungary, on Monday.

Hungarian opposition never gave up the fight

dobrev mep eu election dk hungarian opposition
Photo: Facebook/Dobrev Klára

Dobrev insisted that the joint platform the opposition formed in 2022 was scuppered not because of a lack of will for unity but because they had each insisted on their own policies and had allowed the ruling parties to drive a wedge between them.

But the Democratic Coalition, the Socialist Party and Párbeszéd-Greens “has never once given up the fight against Viktor Orbán and Fidesz in recent years,” she said, adding that their coalition was now so strong that “the Orbán regime cannot be replaced without it”. “Anyone who fails to get this backs the current government,” she added.

“We’re not adventurers or political celebrities, but a solid left-wing force that wants a fair, just, European Hungary…” Dobrev said.

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Here is how Former PM Gyurcsány’s party wants to unseat PM Orbán

Former PM Ferenc Gyurcsány's party DK slams President Sulyok

A left-wing, social democratic government with a strong, social democratic programme “will unseat Viktor Orbán’s regime”, Klára Dobrev, the shadow prime minister of the Democratic Coalition, said on Thursday in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary.

At a campaign event held with other opposition leaders in the city centre, Dobrev declared that Former PM Gyurcsány’s party, DK, was ready to govern. “There’s no time to wait until 2026, so if we win the European Parliament elections, we will demand an early general election,” she said.

Ágnes Kunhalmi, co-leader of the Socialist Party, insisted that cooperation by the three leftist opposition parties would create the strongest left-wing community.

Tímea Szabó, executive co-leader of Párbeszéd-Greens, said without opposition unity and cooperation there would be no hope of Hungary ever becoming a better place to live in.

Read also:

  • DK: Orbán cabinet imports Chinese police to serve in Hungary – Read more HERE

Hungary’s economy in big trouble?

huf forint money hungary's economy wage financial health

Hungary’s economy “is in big trouble”, according to the opposition Socialists, who slammed the government’s “flawed” pensions policy.

Hungary’s economy in trouble

The budget is too strained for the payment of a pension premium, Lajos Korózs, the party’s deputy leader, told a press briefing on Friday, noting the government’s rule that the economy must grow by at least 3.5 percent before the extra pension payment could be made.

He also blamed “bad” economic and financial policies, including interest and exchange-rate policies, for the plight of pensions, saying that “even the finance minister has admitted that dedicated measures are needed to protect pensions”, and the Socialist politician called for a pension-protection fund.

Many retirees, he added, were living in poverty, while almost 400,000 were still having to maintain their job as they were unable to support themselves from their pension alone.

Korózs said pensions had been falling behind wages “drastically”, and the government was unwilling to close the gap, “even in the case of low pensions”.

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Socialist lawmaker loses immunity: bribe investigation continues

Hungarian Socialists Zsolt Molnár

Parliament suspended the immunity of Socialist lawmaker Zsolt Molnár over ongoing investigations of graft and trade in influence.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office had requested Molnár’s immunity to be suspended as he is suspected of requesting a bribe of 40 million forints (EUR 102,000) to allow a deal between the Budapest municipality and the sole applicant for a tender for IT purchases for the city’s public transport company BKK in 2019.

The graft is alleged to have occurred through another Socialist dignitary, Ferenc Baja, János Hargitai, the head of the committee for immunity matters, told parliament. Baja, then the government commissioner for information technology affairs, had asked for 30 million forints to refrain from hindering the deal through his influence with municipality dignitaries, he said.

Hungarian Socialists Zsolt Molnár
Socialist MP Zsolt Molnár. Photo: MTI

The charges against Molnár would constitute trading in influence, a felony under Hungarian law, the prosecutor’s office said.

In his reply, Molnár noted he himself had requested his immunity to be suspended in February 2022, “trusting that the prosecutor’s office will investigate the case fairly”. Molnár called the procedure a “show trial”.

Read also:

  • Outrageous: 15-year-old sportsman assaulted in Romania for being Hungarian – Read more HERE
  • State secretary Kovács: Antifa activist’s father launched unfounded political attacks against Hungary – Details in THIS article

Fidesz candidate for mayor of Budapest Szentkirályi slams opposition alliance

szentkirályi alexandra budapest mayor candidate fidesz

“What belongs together is now growing together,” the Fidesz-KDNP candidate for mayor of Budapest said on Friday, responding to a strategic cooperation agreement by the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), Socialists and Párbeszéd.

In a video message on Facebook, Alexandra Szentkirályi said the agreement by the opposition parties showed that “Gyurcsány’s people aren’t making any secret of the fact that they run city hall and the mayor”. She said they had brought Budapest to the “brink of bankruptcy” in recent years and now promised to keep it there if it were up to them.

She noted that the agreement was for the long term and involved joint lists for the European Parliament and the capital’S municipal council elections as well as a joint candidate for prime minister in the 2026 general election.

“Today, Ferenc Gyurcsány has a mayor, while the citizens of Budapest have none,” she said. “That’s why there must be change in Budapest,” she added.

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