On Wednesday, the government decided to make available HUF 79.4 billion to hospitals for the implementation of health care developments and the reduction of their debt portfolio, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office announced at a press conference held on Thursday in Budapest.

Gergely Gulyás said from the government funding package a sum of HUF 36.6 billion will be available for health care modernisation purposes. This means that the government is increasing the funding of out-patient care by HUF 15.7 billion, and so they are now also fully financing care services which were not eligible or were only partly eligible for funding in excess of the performance volume limit. The cabinet is allocating HUF 17.7 billion for in-patient care which also serves to cover services in excess of the above limit, he added. He highlighted that the government will provide an additional HUF 3.15 billion for the procurement of medicines serving to target genetic deficiencies in a wider range than at present.

Based on the Minister’s information, the government wishes to settle the debt portfolios of hospitals from the remaining HUF 42.8 billion. The Minister stressed that this time the arrangement will be different as the government will not assume the debts of institutions; instead, they will intend to negotiate about them centrally, ascertaining in each instance that the billed services are duly justified.

He also said the Ministry of Finance will assign financial inspectors to the 13 health care institutions in the worst economic situation.

He stressed that it is the government’s goal to avoid similar situations, and it is prepared to do so by identifying the performance volume limit in departure from the current practice and more stringently enforcing compliance with the rules of financial management. This may require additional funding, but they would not like to see situations similar to the present one re-emerge year after year, he added.

The Minister further informed the press that, according to the government, the educational cabinet has not presented changes to the National Curriculum on a scale that would require the adoption of new legislation. Therefore, they will present the proposed changes to Parliament in the form of a motion for legislative amendments. Details will be clarified in the next two weeks, he added.

In answer to a question, he said there is a HUF 10 billion difference between the deficit of HUF 70 billion reported by hospital suppliers and the current government funding as the increased funding provided for out-patient and in-patient care services will also permit the settlement of debts worth HUF 20 billion in total.

Mr Gulyás indicated that, as expected, the government will decide on next year’s pay rises before the end of this year, including the pay rises of law enforcement agency workers.

“There are some who look better reciting texts learnt from a book,” he said in answer to a question about Jászai Mari Award winning actor Ervin Nagy’s criticism of government-party politicians.

In answer to a question regarding his predecessor János Lázár’s critical comment about Fidesz, he stressed that he agrees that the government and Fidesz could indeed communicate more effectively, and should engage in more up-to-date communication with young people, resorting more extensively to channels which they themselves use. He observed that the fact that opposition forces, despite differences among them, are able to combine forces has resulted in a new political situation, and to this they will have to give new types of political answers.

At the same time, Mr Gulyás did not agree with Mr Lázár regarding the claim that Fidesz had lost the October municipal elections. He said Fidesz had lost positions, but on the whole – though earlier they had been used to winning with a knock-out – they had won on points.

The Minister said it is fake news that Fidesz politician György Simonka – against whom charges have been pressed due to organised economic crimes – has achieved a change in the legal definition of criminal organisation in his favour. According to Mr Gulyás, the fact that charges have been pressed against him is proof of the opposite. He said the change made to the legislation reflects the original legislative intention, meaning that the organisation must operate hierarchically, while the earlier practice of courts followed a broader interpretation.

According to Mr Gulyás’s information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received any enquiry from Croatia due to the fact that the Prime Minister posted a photo of the Fidesz board meeting, in the background of which there is a map of Greater Hungary. He added that the Fidesz headquarters building was built in 1905, and the map that shows the borders at the time was fixed onto the wall at the time of the construction of the building. While the communists covered it up, they did not destroy it, and so it could be restored to its original state together with the building accommodating it, he said.

Those who decided to release the perpetrator of the Győr child murder on parole made a grave mistake in the proceedings both at first and second instance, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stated at the Thursday Governmentinfo press conference. He said if the court had not handed the man the mildest sentence possible, he would still be in prison.

Mr Gulyás said at its Wednesday meeting the cabinet heard a report about the case, and they concluded that the procedure concerning the man will have to be investigated comprehensively.

The Minister also pointed out that the man had been given an unjustifiably and unacceptably mild sentence for his earlier crimes, even if he had committed them in combination. In such a case, any departure from the mean sentence must be reasoned, he added, meaning in this instance if in the case of a crime punishable with a sentence extending from five to fifteen years, a sentence is imposed that is milder than imprisonment for ten years.

There has been a more stringent penal policy in Hungary’s laws since 2010 in vain if the courts fail to apply it, he said. If it had been applied, those children would still be alive, he stated.

He added that the government is looking into the possibility of a legislative amendment to the effect that there should be no scope for releasing on parole anyone who tries to take another person’s life. At present, this possibility only exists in the case of criminal organisations.

Regarding the details, he said upon the man’s conditional release at the end of September, the court failed to take into consideration both the recommendations of the penal institution and the prosecution service, despite the fact that the perpetrator made no effort in the interest of his successful social integration, and was also disciplined.

Upon his release, no psychological evaluation was made; however, an evaluation was made during the couple’s divorce in 2019. This did not identify risks in connection with continued communication between the father and his children, and therefore while during the divorce proceedings the father’s custody rights were not removed, in departure from the rule of thumb, the court argued in favour of continued communication.

Mr Gulyás said this case is not appropriate for anyone to draw political conclusions or to use it for political benefit.

He spoke about the Curia’s responsibility, and said Justice Minister Judit Varga will therefore ask its president to ensure that the groups that analyse legal practices within the organisation review, particularly in the case of crimes against life, whether the judgements handed down are stringent enough.

He also asked whether there is any point in the existence of forensic experts if, in a case such as this, they are unable to exercise professional control, or in the existence of the chamber if it is unable to exercise the same professional control over forensic experts.

In answer to a question, the Minister also said Parliament will not ratify the Istanbul Convention. In his view, it has nothing to do with this case, and the Hungarian legal system provides more effective and more robust protection for women than the convention. He took the view that the “hysteria” surrounding the convention is about inducing the government to accept that people are not born as men and women, but in actual fact, there are social genders. The government does not want to accept this.

The Minister pointed out in answer to a question about the future funding of the biodome to be built in the metropolitan park Városliget as part of the zoo that the project is a metropolitan one, not a state one, and the director general of the zoo is responsible for it. Despite this, the government granted an estimated budget of HUF 25 billion for the project, and provided a further HUF 18 billion. He said having done this, they are just awaiting the invitation to the opening; the government has nothing further to do.

Mr Gulyás was queried about the fact that according to the business research institute GKI, for the purposes of calculating the average wage the statistical office does not take account of the incomes of some 37 per cent of workers, typically, the earnings of those in the lower income brackets. He said if the government is accused of fraud, the same accusation should also be levelled at previous governments, given that the Central Statistical Office has applied the same calculation method for thirty years. Additionally, the results only depart from those of the tax authority by only a few thousand forints, and the latter monitors the pay of all workers.

Mr Gulyás also told the press that, due to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s illness, the Wednesday cabinet meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Finance Mihály Varga.

In answer to a question, the Minister said if the information released in the press is true, then there could be a serious case of conflict of interest, even extending to liability under criminal law, in respect of the Szeged Tribunal which acquitted the accused of the Szeviép Case at second instance in the absence of evidence last week. He said the National Office for the Judiciary will have to find answers due to major threats to the impartiality of the administration of justice in Szeged.

“What we see here is that the mother of the wife of one of the defence attorneys” is the head of the Criminal Section of the Szeged Tribunal, one of the judges purchased a hundred-square-metre property from the municipality involved in the case for just HUF 14 to 15 million in Szeged’s most elegant district, and there is a company which is partly owned by one of the judges and together with another company they were awarded a project worth one billion forints by the city municipality in a public procurement, while its earlier revenues amounted to just HUF 17-18 million, Mr Gulyás listed the circumstances that appear to be suspicious in the case.

He said faith in the impartiality of judges is one of the cornerstones of the rule of law; at the same time, this is no reason to list judges as the Mayor of Hódmezővásárhely does.

In answer to a question, the Minister said, regardless of the case, the pay rise of judges is justified and fair as at present their remuneration is at the bottom of the relevant EU rankings.

(MTI)