November 05, 2009, 10:05 CET
SZDSZ head says party to vote against budget bill
The leader of Hungary's liberal Free Democrats insisted on Wednesday that his party would refuse to support the government's 2010 budget bill.
In a vote on Tuesday, MPs approved the main figures of the bill which includes a budget deficit of 3.8 percent of gross domestic product. The bill's framework passed comfortably with 200 MPs voting for and 156 against.
The minority ruling Socialists need the votes of Free Democrat deputies to pass the budget; the final vote is expected to take place on November 30.
Attila Retkes told a news conference that whereas the bill was in line with the key priorities of crisis-management, it would not serve the interests of poor people. He added that the bill failed to provide guarantees for job retention or creation, and planned cuts to local council budgets would create a mess in municipalities.
The Free Democrats are deeply divided. The party's parliamentary group leader, Janos Koka, supports the crisis-management measures of Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and has said he and fellow party MPs will support the 2010 budget bill.
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By my calculations, only 7 SzdSz people need to support the budget bill for it to be passed and to ensure that they continue to get their MPs' salaries until April. I have a strange premonition that these 7 will be found.