BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Thousands of Hungarian primary and secondary school students, teachers and parents formed human chains across downtown Budapest on Wednesday morning in support of teachers fighting for higher wages and teachers sacked for protesting.
Teachers have launched a “I want to teach” campaign and called for civil disobedience to demand higher wages, a solution to a deepening shortage of teachers, and the right to strike.
Trade unions have called a nationwide teachers’ strike for Wednesday. After a nationwide teachers’ stike in January 2022, the governmment restricted strike action.
Several teachers were dismissed last week at a Budapest secondary school for joining the protest.
Students formed a chain stretching for kilometres (miles) across the Hungarian capital on Wednesday morning. Some held up banners “No teachers, no future” and “Who will teach tomorrow?”, while cars passing in the morning traffic blew horns in support.
Thousands of students and teachers are expected to attend a demonstration in front of parliament on Wednesday evening.
Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term on April 3, faces a mounting challenge as the economy is heading into recession next year, with inflation in double digits.
The government said it would hike teachers’ wages once the European Commission releases EU recovery funding to Hungary which has been withheld amid a rule-of-law dispute.
Parliament speaker Laszlo Kover, a senior member of Orban’s ruling Fidesz party, told HirTV on Monday that teachers’ wages were lagging average earnings but strikes were not the way to achieve a solution.
“I am sure that strikes won’t help … as everyone knows that the level of wages is in no way related to the quality of teaching in the short term,” Kover said.
($1 = 421.0900 forints)
(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Michael Perry)
