Election 2018: Socialists, Párbeszéd outline programme to curb emigration

If elected to government, the Socialist-Párbeszéd coalition will launch a government scheme to keep young Hungarians in the country and to motivate those who have already emigrated to return, the parties’ PM candidate said on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference in front of the National Election Office, Gergely Karácsony said on Friday that a new state secretary’s office would be set up which would be dedicated to the scheme.

The Socialist-Párbeszéd party coalition’s strategy will include “ensuring equal voting rights” to Hungarians abroad. Additionally, they will finance first degrees and launch a housing programme to motivate young citizens to stay in the country, Párbeszéd’s co-leader said.

The election office has used “enormous resources” to register ethnic Hungarians holding dual citizenships in neighbouring countries to vote in the Hungarian elections, Karacsony said. At the same time, it has “made no efforts” to enable Hungarian citizens working abroad to vote, he insisted.

Karácsony said he had asked Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi to develop the strategy.

Ujhelyi insisted that the Fidesz-Christian Democrat government’s “only” scheme to lure young Hungarian emigrants home “has failed”.