Socialist-Párbeszéd government would raise health sector wages by 50 pc

If the opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd party alliance were to win power at the upcoming election, they would raise wages in Hungary’s health care by 50 percent, the two parties’ PM candidate told a press conference marking the Day of Hungarian Nurses on Monday.

Gergely Karácsony said that the government had “forgotten about nurses”. Referring to Viktor Orbán’s recent state-of-the-nation address, Karácsony said that the prime minister’s not even mentioning health care “shows how uncomfortable the subject is” for the government.

Karácsony also insisted that

while the government had raised wages in the sector it also scrapped benefits and the raises “in fact came to nothing”.

Párbeszéd co-leader Tímea Szabó said it was “unacceptable and inhumane” that nurses working night shifts are forced to take up a second job to make ends meet.

On another subject, Karácsony said the government’s recent “Stop Soros” draft law package was a “stupid legislation aimed at harassing civil groups”.