Hungarians demand teacher pay hikes in mass protest

Tens of thousands of Hungarians demonstrated on Wednesday against low pay and poor working conditions for schoolteachers amid worsening staff shortages.

The protesters — many of them teenaged students wearing plaid shirts — gathered in downtown Budapest, carrying posters that read “We are with our teachers” and “No teachers, no future”.

“I’m here because it’s impossible to go on like this,” Gabor Kovacs, a 19-year-old student, told AFP, decrying a lack of teachers and material, as well as teachers’ low pay.

Another protester, Virag Pek, 17, said teachers were “real heroes to work in circumstances like they are in this country”.

Earlier in the day thousands of people formed a human chain in the capital in protest, and students temporarily blocked a downtown bridge.

A month ago, thousands demonstrated for better working conditions for teachers, some of whom temporarily stopped work in protest as schools reopened after summer recess.

The government, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban since 2010, says it can only meet teacher demands once the European Union releases billions of euros of long held-up pandemic recovery funds.

Brussels has not yet signed off on the release due to corruption concerns.

The delay comes as the Hungarian economy is under pressure from a weakening local currency and fast-rising inflation.

Fears for academic freedom in Hungary have also escalated in recent years, as Orban has moved to gain sway over institutions seen as too liberal.

The number of unfilled teaching jobs in primary and secondary schools soared from 7,000 in 2014 to 35,000 in 2019, according to the latest official data.