Christmas Eve soon to be work-free

Until now, official public holidays in Hungary have been 1 January, 15 March in memory of 1848/49, Good Friday and Easter Monday, 1 May, Whit Monday, St Stephen’s Day on 20 August, 23 October in memory of 1956, All Saints’ Day on 1 November and the Christmas holidays on 25 and 26 December.

The trade union KASZ formulated the question, which the National Election Committee (NVB) has now officially authorised to call a referendum on the matter. If a majority of citizens vote in favour of the initiative, Christmas Eve, i.e. 24 December, would be celebrated as a non-working day and public holiday for the first time in 2025. This is particularly important for retail employees, who are practically on the clock in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas business and therefore have no time to get into the festive spirit.

Eleven years of resistance

Jobbik had persistently tried to push through the new public holiday in parliament, but had failed for eleven years (!) due to resistance from the government majority. Last December, retail giants such as Lidl, Penny and Rossmann joined the opposition party’s initiative, no longer wanting to put their employees through the stress of 24 December. Jobbik has now called on the governing parties to implement the decision based on its proposal in parliament in order to avoid a referendum that would cost billions and whose outcome is clearly predictable.

So far, Fidesz has used the template of declining competitiveness if people work fewer days a year or if one (half) day of the consumption rush is cancelled. At the same time, Hungarians are just below the EU average with eleven recognised public holidays today, in the neighbourhood even Ukrainians have one more day off, in Austria there are 13 a year, and the Romanians and Slovaks even have 15 public holidays each!

Gulyás: ‘if the citizens want it that way…’

At the government press conference on Thursday, the Minister of the Chancellery admitted for the first time that ‘if the citizens want 24 December to be declared work-free, then we take note of that’. Gergely Gulyás expressed his surprise that a referendum could be held on such an issue. He recalled that the Orbán government had already introduced two public holidays in Hungary, All Saints’ Day and Good Friday. Finally, he recalled the issue of competition, according to which Hungary and Europe are lagging behind the USA and Asia in terms of the number of hours worked per year.