The National Council of the opposition liberal Free Democrats (SZDSZ) does not support next year’s state budget and recommends that the party’s parliamentary group should also reject it, party chairman Attila Retkes told reporters after the council’s Saturday session.
The planned budget would make life even more difficult for the destitute, the jobless, SMEs and local governments, Retkes said, adding that the macroeconomic course envisaged by it would be unsustainable.
The Free Democrats, however, are deeply divided. Parliamentary leader Janos Koka told MTI on Saturday that the SZDSZ MPs would continue to support the crisis-management measures of Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai.
In early November, 14 of the 19 SZDSZ deputies voted for the main figures of the budget.
The final vote, seen as a big hurdle for the government, is scheduled to take place on November 30. The draft budget contains the all-important deficit of 3.8 percent of gross domestic product which was a condition of the country’s bailout package with the IMF and European Union.
