Timmermans calls for fair wages in EU at Hungarian Socialist congress

Frans Timmermans, addressing a Hungarian Socialist Party congress in Budapest on Saturday, called for fair wages in the European Union and closing the wage gap between women and men.

The First Vice-President of the European Commission, who is the European Socialist Party’s Spitzenkandidat, told the congress held to vote on the Hungarian Socialist Party’s European Parliament list that he would not enter into deals with the far right should he become commission president.

He said the Socialists should turn their attention to young people and stand by them, creating conditions in Hungary so they do not leave for abroad.

Referring to a student who recently addressed anti-government demonstrations, Timmermans said: “You must stand by young people, as the Hungarian Socialists did in the case of Blanka Nagy”.

He said the so-called “slave law” was not the right response to Hungary’s labour shortage. Instead, the government should ensure decent working conditions, appropriate wages and a good education, he added.

If elected as EC president, he would close the forty percent gap between the wages of men and women, he said, adding that this would also be true in the case of pensions.

Timmermans insisted that stimulating the birth rate did not hinge on tax relief but on providing a good education and child care.