The Budapest Times
Anna Donath - Photo: MTI

Momentum: Payment of EU funds should be contingent of education reform in Hungary

Written by BT/MTI
The opposition Momentum party has said payment of European Union funds to Hungary should be contingent on the government implementing a comprehensive reform of the country's education system and raising teachers' salaries.

Momentum MEP Anna Donath told a news conference in Budapest on Tuesday that she would turn to the European Commission and ask it to make this a condition for the release of European funds to Hungary. Momentum wants teachers to receive an immediate 50 percent salary increase, she added.

The ruling Fidesz party issued a statement in response, saying that left-wing politicians “like Anna Donath” were responsible for teachers not getting a salary hike because they had been working to block Hungary’s EU funding, thereby depriving teachers of the chance to earn 800,000 forints (EUR 2,160) each month.

The statement added that Hungarian opposition MEPs Klara Dobrev, Csaba Molnar, Attila Ara-Kovacs, Marton Gyongyosi, Katalin Cseh, Sandor Ronai and Istvan Ujhelyi were doing the same, meanwhile earning 5-6 million forints each month.

Had the left wing not undermined their own country, Hungary would have already received the EU funds due to it, Fidesz said.

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