The opposition parties demand that the state pay the money it owes to the Hungarian Evangelical Brotherhood, said the DK chairman of the parliament's budget committee at a press conference in Budapest on Monday.

László Varju said that the proposal could not be discussed at the committee meeting due to the absence of the government representatives. He added that the meeting should also have discussed the fact that the euro exchange rate "reaches an unprecedented value". The vice president of the Democratic Party noted that the governing parties did not appear at thirty percent of the budget committee meetings in four years.

The press conference was attended by Gábor Iványi , the president of the Oltalom Charitable Association, who reminded that the Hungarian Evangelical Brotherhood received its established and recognized status in 1981. However, the current government revoked our church status and "they launched a hunt against us," he added.

He pointed out that, according to the Constitutional Court, their church status should be returned, but the government does not take this decision into account, which is why they do not receive the additional support. Gábor Iványi said that since 2016, the government has accumulated about HUF 12 billion in debt to them, from which they could pay off their own three billion HUF debt.

Anett Bősz , the deputy faction leader of the DK, spoke about how what is happening to Gábor Iványi and the Hungarian Evangelical Brotherhood is a symbol of what the government has been doing since 2010. In addition to a flawed social and economic policy, at least the social welfare system that can provide for "those displaced from the sunny side of life" should be functioning, he emphasized.

The politician said that the fact that "it was possible to break down the door with armed NAV officers" on this church and Gábor Iványi, clearly shows that the government is "not only arrogant, but also extremely cynical and unjust".

Anita Potocskáné Kőrösi , the Jobbik parliamentary representative, criticized the government politicians who were absent from the committee and said that the HUF 400 euro exchange rate would also have been discussed at the meeting. According to him, this exchange rate is proof of Fidesz's failed economic policy of the past 12 years.

It is a historical omission and a crime that Hungary is not yet a member of the Eurozone, he declared. He emphasized that Slovaks and Slovenians are safe in the eurozone, but the forint performs worse than the Romanian lei, the Czech koruna and the Polish zloty.

The socialist Attila Mesterházy stated that the government should not weaken but strengthen the organizations that deal with alleviating people's suffering and their social situation.

Turning to the euro exchange rate, he said that the forint is in "free fall", which people will pay because inflation will rise. One of the main reasons for the weakening is the Russian-Ukrainian war, but the Polish zloty and the Czech crown weaken less than the forint, he pointed out.

The Hungarian National Bank must act, it would be worthwhile to consider turning to the European Central Bank for help, and the Hungarian economic policy must also change, but that requires a change of government - assessed Attila Mesterházy.

MTI