Opposition: wage drop in Hungary is a sign of govt’s failed crisis management
Real wages have started to drop in Hungary for the first time in 12 months which “goes to show that the Fidesz-led government has failed in its pandemic-related crisis management efforts”, the co-leader of opposition LMP said on Friday.
“While gross average wages have increased by an annual 3.5 percent, inflation has risen to 5 percent over the past 12 months,” Máté Kanász-Nagy told an online press conference. He noted that the gross wage increase also included a one-off payment of HUF 500,000 (€ 1,435) to health-care workers.
In 2020, an average Hungarian household had a monthly net income of HUF 197,000 (€ 560), the politician said, adding that more than one million people were making minimum wage.
LMP’s programme includes guaranteeing everyone a steady income increase instead of distributing one-off payments as “a donation”, Kanász-Nagy said, adding that the wages of teachers and employees in the cultural and social sectors had stagnated over a long period of time.
The party promises to introduce a fairer tax policy including scrapping any tax on the minimum wage and reducing the tax on incomes up to 500,000 forints to 12 percent, the politician said.
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On another note, Párbeszéd submitted an anti-graft proposal to the parliament. The opposition Párbeszéd party on Friday said it has submitted three proposals to parliament related to setting up an anti-corruption agency and protecting whistleblowers.
Párbeszéd’s bills include a constitutional amendment proposal on setting up an anti-corruption agency and one on the proposed agency’s regulations, Bence Tordai, the party’s deputy group leader, told on online press conference. The third proposal concerns the protection of whistleblowers exposing corruption, he said.
Passing these bills would allow Hungary to “rid itself of the oligarchs . sucking the life out of the Hungarian economy”, Tordai said.
The leader of the opposition Momentum Movement, András Fekete-Győr told the same press conference that some 1,000 billion forints’ (€ 2.87billion) worth of public funds were lost to corruption in Hungary each year.
If the opposition wins next year’s general election it will set up an anti-corruption agency and agree to Hungary joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), Fekete-Győr said.
Source: MTI