Nation weak if 4 million are poor: Socialists

There are no strong municipalities, and there is no strong Hungary, if four million people are living in poverty, the chairman of the opposition Socialists, József Tóbiás (pictured), has said on the campaign trail for the local elections this Sunday. “This group has been left without representation and partnership and without a safety belt,” Tóbiás told a public forum in Pápa. There are 620,000 children living in mouldy and damp homes, 170,000 lack access to proper baths and another 300,000 do not get proper meals, he said, making reference to a new international study about Hungarian society. Tóbiás said it is the responsibility of municipalities to manage social tension generated by the government’s decisions.
Socialist MP Ildikó Borbély Bangó said the party demands the Central Statistical Office (KSH) release figures on poverty in Hungary to the public. She noted that Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, has already reported on the basis of data received from KSH that the number in poverty in Hungary increased 100,000 in 2013. In comparison, poverty had dropped in neighbouring countries, with the proportion to the population at 26% in Poland, 20% in Slovakia and 14.6% in the Czech Republic. The figure in Hungary is 33%, Bangó said.