In the social field, too, the government passes important laws without any social debate or consultation, our Research Fellow Dorottya Szikra said in an interview with Telex.

She was asked about the proposed changes to the Hungarian social law, according to which it would be the individual who is primarily responsible for his or her own social security, with the state helping those in need only as a last resort, when family members, local government and charities have failed.

She argued that the proposed changes modify the entire logic of social care, adding that “by making it the responsibility of the individual to create social security, it is said that there are no structural problems behind poverty.”

“You could starve to death in this country before, and now they would even make it law,” she emphasized.

Hungarian Prime Minister “Orban has a strong vision of what Hungarian society should look like, and this is reflected in the government's actions. The higher your income is, the more support you can expect from the state, and vice versa,” she said.

Read the full interview (in Hungarian) here.