The opposition politician has also called for expanding the group of people eligible for the government's family home purchase subsidies.Continue reading
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s economic and social policies have failed, the co-leader of opposition LMP said at a joint press conference held online with two other politicians presenting the opposition’s social program.
Máté Kanász-Nagy, introducing himself as spokesman on social affairs in the shadow government of prime ministerial candidate Péter Márki-Zay, said that inflation was sky-rocketing, social inequalities were “set loose” and poverty was increasing.
If the opposition forms the next government, family allowances will be increased, a subsidized rental housing scheme launched and people caring for relatives living with disabilities no longer neglected, he said.
András Jámbor, a candidate of Párbeszéd and the opposition alliance for next year’s election, said that Hungary had been suffering from a housing crisis for over a decade.
He said the government had canceled the only large-scale accommodation project, dubbed Student City, and instead plans “to bring in a Chinese private university which will drive the country to indebtedness”. Citing surveys, he said that home prices in Budapest had increased by 10 percent in a year.
Some 62 percent of people aged 18-34 live with their parents, Jámbor said. Despite having a full-time job, some 70 percent of Hungarians aged 25-34 and living with their parents cannot afford to have their own home, he added.
Once a new government comes to power, he said, a new housing subsidy scheme will be launched, expanded options offered for employers to support accommodation, and an advance savings scheme launched for home purchases.
The forced evacuation of tenants who cannot pay back their forex-denominated mortgages will be suspended for an unspecified period of time and a fund set up to compensate those that lost their homes, he said. The family insolvency service will be expanded and support for home maintenance and debt management reintroduced, he added.
Lajos Korózs of the Socialists said that local governments would be once again in charge of offering crisis aid. He promised that once in government, wages for social workers will be raised by 50 percent, and the range of home services expanded.
Featured image via Vivien Cher Benkő/Prime Minister’s Press Office/MTI
