"Threatening a strike cannot replace meaningful negotiations, it will not bring more money to public education". When was this sentence uttered? No, the left-wing readers are wrong, this is what Gergely Arató, now running in DK colors, told the teachers in 2006, when they protested against the increase in the number of compulsory lessons. Then in 2007, 8,000 teachers lost their jobs due to the closing of schools, but who remembers that now, when the left, led by Ferenc Gyurcsány and his wife, settled on the topic of raising teachers' wages in the hope of political gain. Although the government repeatedly emphasized that the issue is not the teacher salary increase, but only its extent and timing. The shadow minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Arató, and his colleagues are calling for a dictatorship, while unverifiable news is spreading.
The government has already stated countless times that a salary increase for teachers is out of the question . The question is when and by how much they can raise wages: They have said several times: they want to raise them as much as possible, as many times as possible, it would be good if the left in Brussels did not constantly obstruct this.
This is one of the reasons why what is happening in connection with the teachers' demonstration is absurd. Ferenc Gyurcsány and his retired ministers - in the absence of meaningful political activity - are desperately clinging to the movements. In addition, unverifiable news also spread.
On one of the platforms, shortly after the first movement, someone shared an article about listing both students and teachers without any references. Someone wrote about a liberal principal who ordered several teachers working in the institution and thus the class to participate in the demonstration. In the same way, there were those who wrote about quotas, but there were those who had already envisioned black cars referring to a friend. In short, the range is wide. Magyar Hírlap did not find any evidence for any of the accusations.
Once again: the government has already stated countless times that the issue in the current situation is not the teacher salary increase, but only the amount. LMP Antal Csárdi did not hear all of this either, who said that by attacking education, the government is essentially fighting against its own nation.
Parliamentary State Secretary Bence Rétvári stated in his answer: in next year's budget, the government increased the budget for education by HUF 86 billion, a significant part of which will be used for teacher salary increases, even if the left did not vote for this. Rétvári also reminded Csárdi that he was the one who ran in the election under the logo of parties that took a month's salary from teachers.
If we follow the words of the state secretary, it is really not difficult to reach the Gyurcsány government. The only interesting thing is that, apart from minor differences, we are also faced with the list of the newly established shadow government. In the political matinee committee led by Klára Dobrev, Gergely Arató is responsible for the government program. However, if we look back in time, Arató's name as the state secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture may be familiar.
The piquancy of the situation is that it was Gergely Arató on the left who was always dictatorial at the time, who spoke to the teachers on the occasion of the teachers' strike in the left-wing press.
Although at the time Arató did his best to suppress and trivialize teacher protests, now he is still in solidarity Source: Gergely Arató Facebook
Under the auspices of the Gyurcsány era, Gergely Arató made a big splash in the left-wing press as Secretary of State for Education, but this did not change the fact that the government only pushed the education system closer to the abyss with every change in legislation and laws. It was Arató who announced in the summer of 2006 that the coalition had agreed on increasing the number of mandatory hours. When the Democratic Union of Teachers announced a two-hour warning strike in December 2006, it was the state secretary who commented: "The threat of a strike cannot replace meaningful negotiations, it does not bring more money to public education." When this tactic did not work, the left used children as well, stating that their supervision must be ensured during the strike as well. Of course, in addition, Arató and the entire Ministry of Education worked to make the problem and, of course, the demonstration appear as small as possible in the left-wing press.
The ministry's announcement after the work stoppage was as follows: "The Ministry of Education and Culture would like to thank the teachers who make sacrifices during the education and upbringing of our children, that the vast majority of them continued to focus on their duties today." Based on the peculiar mathematics, the ministry calculated that only six percent of the teachers participated in the action, so there is actually no problem here.
Arató did not disdain unorthodox forms of politicking either, as Fidesz politician Zoltán Pokorni drew attention to the fact that the state secretary of education distributed eggs in bunny ears to children during the European Parliament election campaign.
In the end, despite the bunny ears and sweeping the problems under the carpet, by 2007 the Gyurcsánys' policy reached its peak with a series of school closures, as a result of which, according to estimates, at least 8,000 teachers lost their jobs. In light of this, the fact that Arató and his ministry made another embezzlement in 2009, this time amounting to 120 million forints, is heartbreaking.
After that, it is not surprising, but at the same time it is certainly telling, that Arato was kept away from education in the Gyurcsánys' toy government. So despite the rolling millions of dollars, the left cannot convert them into votes. And as long as this situation exists, apparently there is nothing left but to try to extract political benefits from every initiative and case. Therefore, those who want to see clearly about the salary increase for teachers have to look far to see beyond the obscurity created by Ferenc Gyurcsány.
Source: magyarhirlap.hu
In our opening photo: Ferenc Gyurcsány - Opponents signature collection, Budapest, 22.02.2022. Photo by Péter Török
