A group of four Socialist politicians and over forty civil residents, unemployed and supporters started their protest march against the government’s measures from Miskolc (NE) on Monday morning.
The march, which was initiated by four mayors of the poor Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen county in the northeast, covers a distance of 180 kilometres from Miskolc to Budapest on foot in the freezing cold.
The Socialist mayors of the villages of Alsogagy and Ricse and their independent peers in Beret and Szikszo announced their march last Thursday, saying the protest was for “work, bread and wages that can sustain a living”. The walk is set to end in a demonstration on February 13 at Parliament, on the first day of the spring session.
The Socialist head of parliament’s labour committee, Nandor Gur, said on Sunday his party would support the protest.
He said the government’s tax measures had hurt low-earners in the country and that some 4 million people in Hungary were estimated to live below the breadline.
Gur and Istvan Ujhelyi, the Socialist deputy speaker of parliament, as well as Socialist county assembly head Andras Lukacs, have also joined the walk.
The Democratic Coalition of former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in a statement on Monday that it also supported the walk.
Laszlo Sebestyen, of the governing Fidesz party, told a press conference on Sunday that he was sorry to see “people living under difficult circumstances being used for party politics by the Socialist party”. He added that the government had helped nearly 30,000 people living in Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen access public works schemes and the Interior Ministry had to date allocated state support worth 15.387 billion forints (EUR 52.83m) to the region.
It’s a great weather for a little walk.
Hopefully they won’t cheat like the “hunger strikers” in front of Magyar Rádió.
Ah, they are Socialists… so they will do.