Hungarian opposition to submit joint amendment proposals to 2021 budget bill

Hungary’s opposition parliamentary parties on Monday said they will submit joint amendment proposals to the 2021 budget bill.

The proposals call for wage hikes in the health-care sector, lower taxes for local councils and higher pensions, among other changes.

Addressing a joint press conference, the leftist Democratic Coalition’s László Varju, the head of parliament’s budget committee, called for an immediate 50 percent wage hike for health-care workers.

Anita Kőrösi Potocska of conservative Jobbik called on the government to scrap the so-called solidarity contribution local councils are expected to pay into the central budget.

The Socialist Party’s Attila Mesterházy said the opposition wants the minimum pension to be raised to 80,000 forints (EUR 230) from the current 28,500.

Antal Csárdi of green LMP said that under the opposition’s proposals, local councils would get to keep their revenues from vehicle taxes rather than having to pay them into the central budget as they do under the government’s coronavirus response scheme.