Messages to the Ukrainian protestors

Kiev protesters seized the Justice Ministry building at Sunday evening. 

Message from Elena Lukash
Ukrainian Justice Minister, Elena Lukash, has said she will ask the National Security and Defense Council to introduce a state of emergency if rioters do not leave the ministry building. Later the police launched a criminal case over the seizure for which the activist group Common Cause claimed responsibility for. They tell that they captured the building in order to get warmer and did not let the police in Local media reported that no one was hurt during the seizure of the building.
'Ukrainian extremists have released the premises of the Ministry for Justice, as well as of the Ministry for Energy' - wrote the Pravda in the daily hours Monday, and the then refuted the update telling that 'Maidan radicals are still in the building, they let reporters in, but do not let them go upstairs.'
A social initiative ‘United We Stand for Ukraine’ has been launched on Thursday evening by JPP ‘Create for Lithuania’. Georgian and Belarus National Platforms expressed solidarity with Ukrainians. A series of solidarity protest began in European cities to support for Ukrainians’ democratic values and freedom.

Message from Budapest
Sunday afternoon Hungarian students and their Ukrainian and Russian friends expressed their solidarity with Ukrainian protestors. The open letter of Yuri Andrukhovych was read out.

 

Message from US
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry told “We will stand with the people of Ukraine,” ....

Mesterházy for president - of Hungary

This is not a big surprise, but now officially Attila Mesterhazy is the candidate of the left for president of Hungary .

Today, on 25 January 2014, the Hungarian Socialist Party - called MSZP - helds its congress in Budapest Sportaréna . As leader of the opposition he is followed by

Gordon Bajnai, leader of the alliance Együtt-PM,

Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the Democratic Coalition , DK,

Gábor Fodor president of The Hungarian Liberal Party (Magyar Liberális Párt) and

Tímea Szabó, co-president the new green party, Párbeszéd Magyarországért ,

in that order, that was not very easily made.

The spotlight due to the first 5 places on the common list of the opposition of the former left wing politicians was not quite a big surprise, but a rather predictable event. as they all pronounced their speeches on the same stage on the 23rd, October in front of the Budapest Technical University - an emblematic place of the 56 hungarian revolution. However at that very moment the now elected candidate for president could not add much, as his words were cut by former prime minister, Gyurcsány supporters.

source: MTI, Hungarian news agency.

Teacher's career path became secure and predictable .. or not?

As a sum up of the first semester, Secretary of State for Public Education, Mme Rózsa Hoffmann, told to the press that teacher's career path became secure and predictable and interest in such a carrier has increased.  

The first steps that will permit to rebuild the respect for teachers in Hungarian society, providing a salary that rewards their responsibilities, have been take according to Mme Hoffmann. She recalled that, as a first step, 80% of teachers received a 40 to 80 thousand HUF increase of their salary, then a new increase by 8-10 thousand HUF followed, and that a granted increase will follow yearly till 2017.

Half an hour before it starts, 1133 people joined the protest with books and warm tea, on facebook.

They protest, among other, against

• Obligatory membership in the National Department of Teachers.
• The unreasonable teacher 's career path model
• The centralized national education plan with low variety of school books.

source: MTI, Hungarian news agency.

Reconciliation fails in Kiev - 24 January 2014.

An officer of the special police forces began conversation with demonstrators standing next to them Friday afternoon, on Hrusevskii street, where the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament building is situated, - according to local press information based on an activist’s recital.

The activist, who was rushing into the building of The House of Trade Unions, residence of the opposition headquarters, hunting for a megaphone in order to be able to keep up the conversation with the officer, told: ‘The special forces told us to go home now and then participate on the elections. We answered them that elections will be rigged, we have no way out and nowhere to go. Then the police officer replied that they were human too and we were human too, so we were brothers and that they had also a family at home and they wanted to go home too.’ The activist added that the moment might come for a reconciliation with the police.
After nearly a whole day of ceasefire on Kiev streets, and an apparently easing tensions during the negotiation between opposition leaders and the government, demonstrators and government forces are back in the fight in Kiev. Police uses light and sound grenades against people and they throw back Molotov cocktails on police and burning tires to let the smoke hide them.
Moreover, opposition leaders are not anymore satisfied with changing government, they call the president to dismiss.
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, now leader of the opposition Udar Party, who returned to Ukraine as american citizen, shared with the press that in his opinion the current scenario is now following a logical order from a foreign source, however he did not mention where from.
‘Our calls have not been heard, and the agreements for truces are violated. Pavers and Molotov cocktails were again hurled at police officers who do not resort to using force, because negotiations between the government and the opposition are continuing, and a home was set on fire,’ said Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko in a statement on the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's website.

‘The Ukrainian people, without exaggeration, now defend the European values of a free and just society with their own blood.’

We have to prepare ourselves for the next revolution - concluded, two years ago in an interview, Yuri Andrukhovych, Ukraine’s most widely read con­tem­po­rary authors, well-known for his engagement in pro-Ukrainian and pro-European activism, replying to a question on the results of the last elections in 2010. ‘The unfreedom is back. Some people at such a historic moment need to listen to the poets – what will they say.’ - he told in the interview.

Now, we can probably soon read him in different languages of the world as he speaks to all, who ask him news from Ukraine, in one open letter shared with the wildest possible public, adding that, with this act, he is ‘subject to several new criminal code articles for “defamation,” “inflaming tensions” in Ukraine, where ‘everything that is not expressly permitted by the powers is forbidden’.

He defends the protesters of the accusation of being extremist and puts this label on the Government.

Hungarian Students Serve a Cup of Warm Tea for Free Education

Half an hour before it starts, 1133 people joined the protest with books and warm tea, on facebook.

The Hungarian public education system has by now shed most of its inherited problems, said the Minister of State for Public Education Rózsa Hoffmann on the second day of the 14th Educatio International Education Fair, publish the government website. Organizers of the protest FOR FREE EDUCATION do not agree. They expect joiners to bring their old schoolbooks too.

As cold has just surprised Hungary, they keep calling for participation adding that warm tea will be served.
See their call below:

On  25 January 2014 at 3:00 pm we protest against the restriction of freedom in education by the premature and incomprehensible - so called - “reforms” in education that we consider dangerous in many ways.

THEY WERE CREATED WITHOUT THE INVOLVEMENT OF PROFESSIONALS IN THE EDUCATION

Delay in school book supply

Dysfunctions of radically centralized national education

Experienced employees in public education sector lost their job

Unjustified increase of workload that risks to damage quality of teaching

Obligatory membership in the National Department of Teachers.

The unreasonable teacher 's career path model

CENTRALISED national education plan with low variety of school books

Withdrawal of funds from education .

Compulsory education age limit reduction.

Obligatory religion and ethic courses.

5 hours physical education per week without adequate infrastructure .

We have invited the responsible leaders in education and related organization, now it's your turn. We ask to invite all your friends, as results can only be achieved through large-scale collaboration. Here's the time and place to be if you want a FREE EDUCATION !
See you on January 25 , at Szabadság tér (the name translated into English is Freedom Square)

We demand that :

1 ) Real and public professional consultation !

2 ) Only pre-developed and established reforms enter into it!

3 ) Do not force / ram students to adopt a mindset accepted by / specific of only a part of the society.

4 ) No more withdrawal of funds from education !

5 ) Ensure public education based on freedom of speech and freedom of expression !

6 ) Liberalization of the school book market!

path of the march : Szabadság Square - Sas Street - Szent István square - Bajcsy- Zsilinszky road - Alkotmány Street - Nagy Ignác Street - Szalay Street

Joining organizations (continually updated list on facebook) :

Association for the Democratic Education and Learning
Student Network -HaHa
Network for Free Education - HAT
Uninvited Network - Hi-Ha
Secondary Schools Students Network -KiHA
OktpolCafé
History Teachers Society


Minister of Human Resources, Zoltán Balog, State Secretary of Public Education, Dr. Rózsa Hoffmann, and Assistant State Secretary Public Education, Imre Sipos, were all invited in order to protect their position within the framework of an open debate.

The protest march path :
3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. : Rally
15:30 - : Talks at Szabadság Square
15:45 ( approx): march to Szent István Square
16:00 : Speeches at St. Stephen's Square, then marching to Arany János Street
16:45 : Speeches Arany Janos Street, then marching to Szalay Street
17:15 ( approx): Check in at Szalay Street, speeches.

watch their call

Should I stay or should I ‘stay’ ?

Right for free and secure movement of people in EU and clarifications by Lászlo Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

EC clarifies which Member State is responsible for the provision of social security benefits to EU citizens moving between Member States. 

Under EU law there can be only one habitual place of residence and so only one Member State responsible for paying residence-based social security benefits. Employees and the self-employed qualify for social security in the country where they work and non-active people (e.g. pensioners, students) qualify in the Member State where they are ‘habitually resident’., - writes the European Commision website in its publication of 13th January. ‘There are clear safeguards in EU law to prevent people from abusing social welfare systems of other EU countries. This guide will make it easier for Member States authorities to apply the ‘Habitual Residence’ safeguards in practice. The handbook is part of the Commission's ongoing actions to facilitate the free movement of people throughout the EU.’ said László Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. According to the European Commission website the guide, drafted in cooperation with Member States, clarifies in around 50 pages the separate concepts of ‘habitual residence’ and ‘temporary residence’ or ‘stay’.

The guide recalls the specific criteria to be taken into account to determine a person's place of 'habitual residence' such as:

• family status and family ties
• duration and continuity of presence in the Member State concerned
• employment situation (in particular the place where such activity is habitually pursued, the stability of the activity, and duration of the work contract)
• exercise of a non-remunerated activity
• in the case of students, the source of their income
• how permanent a person's housing situation is
• the Member State where the person pays taxes
• reasons for the move
• the person's intentions based on all the circumstances and supported by factual evidence.

Other facts may also be taken into account if relevant.

source: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/andor and MTI, Hungarian news agency

13, 14, 15 and so on…. first results of the anti-homeless decree

13 homeless has been penalized, due to the decree adopted on the 14 th of November, last year, in the first 15 days of 2014 for using public spaces unlawfully for habitual residence, most of them in the center of Budapest. according to the information of the Budapest Police Headquarters ( BRFK ) .

The grace period expired on the 31th of December. The Decree says that it is unlawful to stay within the World Heritage area of Budapest, the bus stops, stations, passenger lounges, Liszt Ferenc International Airport and the Népliget public park. The 29 frequented underpasses of the city are also included in the prohibited area and so the 50 meter area in any direction from their entries.
Such underpasses are all subway and underground stations and underpasses at :

• the Ajtósi Dürer sor situated beside the City Park (Városliget) with an entry in front of the National Institute for the Blind,
• the very frequented Bocskai-Fehérvári crossroads near to the Allee shopping center,
• the most frequented one of all North Pest side at Florian square,
• Goldmann György square, a rather small underpass situated between two major university sites at the end of the Petőfi bridge,
• the recently renovated Margit bridge Buda bridgehead and the Móricz Zsigmond Square underpass,
• several small crossing underpasses at Váci utca area,
• and the miserable passages near to Ferdinand bridge at Nyugati Railway station and the rather dark passage nearby, under the railways, linking Bajza and Bulcsu streets

The prohibition is extended to playgrounds , child welfare , child protection , public education , higher education institutions and public cemeteries and their 100 meter quadrants, as well as the bridges, overpasses and stairs. District can define themselves what streets and areas are included as forbidden areas.

Come on, come on, (invest in)to the locomotion!

The European Investment Bank ( EIB) is providing a loan of 250 million euro to finance the rehabilitation and modernization of the Hungarian railway infrastructure between 2013 and 2016 - announce its press release launched on 8 January 2014. 

The EIB has recently granted a loan of a similar amount, representing in this case the half of the amount necessary, to rail projects in the Pays de la Loire, in France ( 19 September 2013 ) and a loan of € 47 million to PKP Cargo SA for the modernization of the rail fleet in Poland ( 4 December 2013 ).
The financing provided by the Bank of the Hungarian EU transport sector since the beginning of its operations in 1990 , reaching € 4.2 billion, represent 25% of its commitment in Hungary.

The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) supports the idea of a basic income.

A member of MSZP, Robert Braun, says, he understand why his colleague in Fidesz, Peter Hoppál considers dangerous the idea of ​​basic income submitted by the LÉT workteam, because his party support, in his view, wealthy people thereby increase of social inequality and poverty.
On the contrary, he thinks, that the project prepared by the LÉT workteam and supported by majority of the left can be the basis for a policy of growth of welfare of children, reduction of unemployment and poverty, the most effective since the regime change.

source: MTI, Hungarian news agency

Katalin Szili is fighting for Social Justice - Basic Income

The leader of the Community for Social Justice (in Hungarian : Közösség a Társadalmi Igazságosságért , KTI ) a new party, born in October 2013 , deny that the unconditional basic income would only a good joke, or 'bluff' , but says that it is a serious part of their program that will permit Hungary to join Europe’s current trends. Ms. Katalin Szili, former member of the Socialist Party and candidate for president in 2005 , said to the press that the introduction of unconditional basic income at European level would be an important step in ensuring the basic conditions of 30 million unemployed Europeans . The social network in Hungary, instead of DIY, ​​would now really need modernization , innovation , being reflexive to the european tendencies , after Ms. Szili's opinion . But she added that the sum of basic income is far from being calculated , and must be the result of a well-founded analysis

source: MTI, Hungarian news angency 

No more free pension in Germany by 2040

Germany now extends charges on old-age pension to senior citizens with a medium amount of pension.

Citizen retiring in 2014 will have to pay tax on their the part of their pension over 1225 euros. (10 years before this number was 1599 euro). After 45 years work, the average german pensioner’s income is 1266,30 euro. All pension is planned to be subjected to tax by 2040 in Germany. The reason is that Germany’s population which counts 80 million people includes 25,18 million pensioner that is approximately 35% of its population.

source: MTI, Hungarian news agency

Fight between protectors of pensioners rights and welfare - Hungary prepares for the elections

Fidesz spokesman Hoppál Péter considered the socialists program dangerous for pensioners and the governor party, Fidesz, as the protector of their rights and walefare. 

Reflecting to his statement Lajos Korózs, socialist deputy of MSZP declared that his party would, in case they win the elections,

1. re-qualify for old-age pension those who have already been once eligible for a state support qualified as old-age pension,
2. authorize the pension before retirement age, that is a constantly increasing number,
3. and introduce the old age pension premium.
4. He presume an increase of not only the market value but also of the real value of the old-age pension. 

He added, that due to Fidesz mesures taken, since 2010, in pension policy, nearly 1 million citizen was deprived from qualification for old-age pension and senior citizen (over age of 65) free travel on public transport was cancelled too.

source: MTI, Hungarian news agency

Hungarian-Azeri relations, one and a half year after

Strengthening economic ties with the Caucasus region is an important element of the Government's Opening towards the East Policy, said the Hungarian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó.

The next session of the Hungarian-Azeri Joint Economic Committee, on bilateral economic relations, education, tourism and visa requirements is scheduled to be held at the end of January.
The State Secretary is proud of the below achievements:
Hungarian exports to Azerbaijan have expanded by 29 percent in the past year.
In 2012 A Hungarian trading house was opened in Baku.
A direct route between Budapest and Baku was launched by Wizz Air in June 2013.

the truth on Hungarian women - early retirement

Since its introduction in the beginning of 2011 more than 100,000 Hungarian women have opted for early retirement after 40 years of work.

This option is available regardless of their age, and the spent raising children is included. The program was named: Women 40.
48,000 women in 2011, 29,000 in 2012 and 25,000 in 2013 opted for early retirement in Hungary.
Minister of State for Social and Family Affairs Miklós Soltész said, that some 2,000 women a month are expected to choose early retirement in 2014.
Due to a project launched by the Government in last November, employers of women over age of 55 and with only less than one year missing from the 40, receive a state subsidy of up to 125 percent of the minimum wage( 147,500 HUF (EUR 492) per month). These women will now also be helped to have the option for joining the 'women 40' program.

source: kormany.hu