I think that in my next life I will be the vice-president of the European Parliament: the salary is excellent, it looks good on the resume, and you don't even have to go to work, you can easily build a career three countries away during your working hours. Francesca Rivafinoli begins her article on the Vásárnap portal.

Here are some thoughts from this.

Klára Dobrev, at least according to the signs, was commenting on the plenary session in Strasbourg this week as well - she was everywhere: in Érd, at Gábor Iványi's birthday party, at Egon Rónai's, at the trade unions, but not at her workplace. He didn't even log in remotely for a few minutes to vote yes on the resolution on intimate partner violence - he didn't get it, he was campaigning for pensioners in Budapest.

In any case, this way at least we get more from the DK politician, who also gave us a press conference this week, stating:

 "The medical waiting lists have been the largest for 30 years: you have to wait up to 3-4 months for an appointment for diabetes, ophthalmology and cardiology! After the change of government, we will employ at least 3,000 new specialists, 9,000 new nurses and 500 new general practitioners."

It is not disputed that the shutdown due to the coronavirus has worsened the situation quite significantly, but the Dobrev suggestions only raise eyebrows. It really seems like a long time to wait three long months for a cataract operation, but in April 2010 the situation was exactly the same, even without Covid. What's more: "In Hódmezővásárhely and Szombathely, patients are only given appointments one and a half to two years in advance," writes the Világgazdaság article at the time, which also points out that hip replacement surgeries "are considered almost a luxury due to the three-year wait." But in February 2009, it was also noted that "the negative Hungarian record holder is the hospital in Eger, which is fighting the final battle for privatization, where you have to wait five years for a knee replacement". Ferenc Gyurcsány's wife is upset about this because the waiting time can be up to two years. Which is a lot, but once the government has successfully cut down the backlog inherited in 2010, we can perhaps assume that the situation will also improve with the latest waiting list reduction program announced in September (and tactfully kept silent by Klára Dobrev).

However, the fine print reveals that he would actually fulfill the promise in ten years - which can be a bit disheartening for the DK voter who now has pain in his knees and sees Klára as a messiah.

In any case, if at some point the vice-president of the European Parliament gets tired of his job, he could (to prove his willingness to act) initiate a report on the problem of waiting lists and the shortage of doctors, especially considering that the number of family doctors is decreasing in exactly the same proportion in Macron's France as in Orban's Hungary. The residents of the Austrian province of Vorarlberg would certainly thank you for your support: there you currently have to wait 49 weeks for a cataract operation.

Francesca Rivafinoli's full article here .