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Thousands of Hungarians, including teachers and students, marched in Budapest on Sunday to protest the government, demanding higher teachers’ wages and stemming a surge in inflation that is eating into incomes.
Walking on a bridge over the Danube, protesters held banners that read “Orban Lost” and “Without Teachers, No Future” as nationalist Prime Minister Orbán pledged to keep the economy stable and capped household energy bills Hours later as the EU plunged into an “economic crisis”.
But in a series of recent anti-government protests, participants said they were disappointed by his government’s meager salaries for teachers, and inflation, which was as high as 20 percent in September and still rising, became unbearable.
“I’m here… for my kids, there should be a change,” said Gyongyi Bereczky, a postman who attended the protest for the first time. “This runaway inflation … we simply can’t save any more, it’s just that with prices soaring, we can’t make ends meet.”
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Teachers and students have been protesting wage increases, addressing a growing teacher shortage and the right to strike.
As the country marked a 1956 anniversary against Soviet rule, Orban, who was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term, said earlier on Sunday that next year’s annual would pose a challenge in neighboring Ukraine’s war.
“There is a war in the east and an economic crisis in the west,” Orban told supporters in Zalaegerszeg, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) west of Budapest, adding that “there is a financial crisis and recession in the EU”.
“In 1956, we learned that hard times required solidarity… We would keep the economy stable, everyone would have a job, we could defend the energy bill cap plan, and we wouldn’t leave families alone.”
Gas and electricity caps have been a key part of Orban’s policy, but the cost of the scheme has soared this year as energy prices have soared, weighing on the state budget. From August 1, the government was forced to lift the cap on high-occupancy households.
With the budget law approved in July forecasting growth of 4.1% next year and inflation forecast at 5.2%, the forecast will be revised in December for Budget 2023 – an outdated forecast as prices soar into double digits . Growth is now expected to slow to 1% next year.
Forint fell to a record low earlier this month, forcing the central bank to raise interest rates in an emergency move.
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