“Over six hundred settlements have been awarded funding for the development of community spaces within the framework of the Hungarian Village Program”, Government Commissioner for the development of modern settlements Alpár Gyopáros said at a press conference in Budapest on Monday.

“The beneficiaries of these tenders are the local governments of small settlements and the church communities operating there”, Mr. Gyopáros said. “Both target groups had the opportunity to apply for a maximum of up to 30 million forints (EUR 86,500) in funding for the establishment and development of community spaces, and for up to three million forints for the employment of a community organiser for a period of one year “, he added.

The Government Commissioner said community services are one of the fundamental tasks of local governments, but local municipalities, which were “chased into debt” during the pre-2010 socialist governments “were hardly able to perform even their basic tasks”.

“However, the current government is also providing significant resources to the local governments of small settlements for this purpose, while via the tender it is contributing to the infrastructure development required to achieve this”, Mr. Gyopáros highlighted.

“Hungary and the whole world is suffering from a shortage of priests and pastors, and accordingly it is not rare for a rural pastor or priest to serve in three or four settlements, or sometimes six or seven, as a result of which they do not have enough time left for traditional community organising tasks”, he stated.

According to the Government Commissioner, thanks to the tender the hired community organiser will be able to assist and ease the burden on local priests and pastors with relation to secular duties.

Mr. Gyopáros also spoke about the importance of renovating empty parish buildings to enable them to be used by church communities and opened to the secular community.

At the press conference, referring to the statement by Barnabás Kádár, the Government Commissioner said it was one of the “most important pieces of news” from last week with relation to rural Hungary that the Momentum politician “spoke contemptuously and condescendingly about the inhabitants of villages and small towns”. The politician has “gone so far” as to want to take away the right to vote from older citizens, he stated.

“In contrast, the Hungarian government strongly believes in the fact that people living in villages and small settlements are our equal compatriots”, he emphasised.

“For this reason, the government is working to assure that the quality of life of people living in small settlements is the same as that of people living in cities, major cities, or even the capital; this is precisely why the Modern Village Program was launched”, he declared.

“Together with the latest six hundred beneficiaries of the Program, winners have already been announced with relation to six tenders this year, their total number now exceeding two thousand”, he indicated, adding that the results of more tenders will be announced in the upcoming weeks, and more tenders will also be announced.

(Prime Minister’s Office/MTI)