Hungary: caregivers demonstrate in Budapest for their working conditions
Several thousand healthcare workers demonstrate to demand higher wages and better working conditions in Budapest, Hungary on July 31, 2021. AP - Laszlo Balogh
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In Hungary, caregivers gathered in Budapest, the capital, on Saturday.
Among their demands: salary increases and better working conditions.
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White t-shirts, balloons of the same color in hand, more than 1,000 caregivers gathered in the central square of Budapest.
Hundreds of them came from afar to demand better working conditions and an increase in their wages.
A recent poll indicated that more than a thousand nurses are considering leaving the country for better working conditions.
Hungary lacks healthcare workers.
Salaries are much lower than in the rest of Western Europe.
According to the Chamber of Health Professionals, around 500 nurses leave Hungary every year.
Last October, Parliament passed a bill dramatically increasing the salaries of doctors, but not those of the rest of the nursing staff.
This demonstration has also become a political battleground.
The Minister of Human Resources was not present, but thanked the caregivers for their work.
While the liberal mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, who plans to run against Prime Minister
Viktor Orban
in the elections next spring, joined the procession.
► To read also: Hungary: Gergely Karacsony, potential challenger of the opposition against Viktor Orban
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Hungary
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Health and medicine