Klára Dobrev, an MEP of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), is forming a shadow cabinet, the party’s deputy leader announced on Friday. Dobrev has been appointed by DK’s board to form a shadow cabinet, which she has accepted, Csaba Molnár told a news conference.
Molnár said DK was convinced that “no one in Hungary today is more qualified” to head a shadow cabinet than Dobrev. He noted that Dobrev had worked at every level of state administration, speaks five languages, has degrees in law and economics and, as a vice president of the European Parliament, had established international relations that are crucial for Hungary.
Dobrev will reveal her plans as shadow prime minister at an event on Sunday before presenting the members of her shadow cabinet at a press conference on Monday, Molnár said.
He said DK had decided to form a shadow cabinet because it believes “Hungary is in serious trouble”. The government “lied to the people” during the spring election campaign, and went on to “impose the most painful austerity package since the change of regime”, Molnár insisted. He said the government’s track record consisted of inflation, fuel shortage, a seven-fold increase in gas prices, tax hikes, “ruined small businesses”, the cost-of-living crisis and the “panic over utility bills”. Molnár said Hungary was being denied access to European Union funds due to “the theft that has been going on for 12 years”. Molnár blamed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for the cost-of-living crisis in Hungary, saying that the crisis would persist as long as he remained in power.
Ruling Fidesz said in reaction that the Hungarian people wanted no part of a “Gyurcsány government”. “Hungarians have had a chance to experience what it is like when [DK leader] Ferenc Gyurcsány is in government,” Fidesz said in a statement. “It was the left that pushed Hungary to the brink of bankruptcy: they scrapped the 13th month pension, took a month’s wage away from teachers and health-care workers, raised electricity and gas prices, scrapped family subsidies, made thousands homeless and when times got tough, they placed more burdens on Hungarian businesses and families instead of helping them,” the party said.
In the April election, an overwhelming majority of Hungarians rejected “the Gyurcsány era” for the fourth time, they added.
hungarymatters.hu
