Hungary teachers protest against cuts, reforms
AFP
November 23, 2014, 5:52 am
Budapest (AFP) - Thousands of Hungarian teachers demonstrated in Budapest on Saturday against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, demanding a stop to funding cuts and dialogue over controversial education reforms.
The approximately 2,000 teachers said they have been excluded by the government from talks on an overhaul of Hungary's education sector since Orban took power in 2010.
The protest's main organisers, the Teachers' Union of Hungary (TUH), also urged parliament not to accept the proposed 2015 budget that goes to vote in December.
"Spending cuts in the budget would lead to mass layoffs, school closures, and less children staying in school," Gallo Istvanne, TUH head told AFP before handing over a petition at the Ministry calling for more dialogue with the government.
Andris Kovesdy, a 36-year-old secondary school teacher, told AFP that if the reforms and cuts continue he would not send his two young children to school.
"No one from headmasters to parents has any say on anything anymore. Everything is centralised," he said.
The demonstration was the latest in a series of anti-government protests to take place since October when tens of thousands marched to demand the scrapping of a proposed tax on internet usage.
The unusual mass demonstrations forced Orban to scrap the plan in his first major policy retreat since 2010.
Since then, large protests have also taken place against corruption in Hungary's Tax Authority and against Orban's policies generally in a so-called "Day of Indignation" last week.
