Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, has bowed to pressure from several of his ministers and decided to ditch a plan to merge several government offices as part of a reform of public administration, according to national dailies on Friday.
State secretary in charge of public administration and elections Erika Szabo told MTI that the plan to set up local government offices in counties was not in danger. The decision to set up the government offices has been made and the list of bodies to be integrated has been “clarified” but “some agreement that has yet to be made”, she said, declining to reveal any further details.
The original plan was to fuse 16 branches of the government, a move which has the support of Justice Minister Tibor Navracsics, Interior Minister Sandor Pinter and Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, but which is vigorously opposed by the five other members of the Fidesz-led centre-right cabinet, according to Nepszabadsag and Magyar Nemzet.
So-called county government offices are to appear from January 1 next year and the 16 branches of government such as the health fund and the public health authority were to have been integrated into the new system. They will now continue to operate as stand-alone organisations, the papers said.
The dissenting ministers were worried that the reform, aimed at creating efficiencies and saving money, would cause serious disruptions to public services.
So, in brief, there will be no administrative savings, simply an expansion of government. “The dissenting ministers were worried that the reform, aimed at creating efficiencies and saving money, would cause serious disruptions to public services.” Ye, right, those were obviously top of their concerns.
Once in power, doing away with all the patronage (jobs for the boys) opportunities never was on the cards. Same old self serving greed.
I am not a big Fidesz fan but this reaction is puzzling. What did they expect? What did they hope? They hate Jobbik because Jobbik is against Israel taking over Hungary but it seems that they hate Fidesz also, maybe a little less but it is still hate.
Did they hope the Communist MSZ(M)P would steal this election also? Not even they can be that stupid. Did they expect the Jewish LMP/SZDSZ come in better than 7% and take over from MSZ(M)P? They could not be that stupid. So what is the problem?
It is not hard to see that Fidesz has a problem. For them, Fidesz is not zsidó bérenc enough while for nemzeti Hungarians, Fidesz is too zsidó bérenc. What is Orban to do to make these people happy? Would using live ammo against peaceful Hungarians supporting the Garda do the trick for Orban? What if gave his next speech in Hebrew? How about letting körmös Bauer’s son pull out all of Budahazy’s fingernails with his father’s pliers while lecturing Hungarians on democratic values?
Would that do the trick.