SZEMA Newsletter 8/2011

Digest in English

SZEMA appealed to the Constitutional Court to annul a government order issued in the last week of August, setting the wages for those participating in the public work programme at less than the statutory minimum wage. The party stated that the government had chosen not to resolve conflicts and problems, but to humble people. Unemployment was hardly falling and there was no economic growth. The public work programme was just a variant of the "forced labour model" found in the election manifesto of the extreme right-wing Jobbik party. In the absence of a policy of its own, Fidesz, the leading government party, drew continually on the Jobbik programme, which was directed against the poor and promotes social exclusion.

The next discussion evening by the Liberal Association will be entitled The sexual policy of the democratic states of culture, i. e. the right of sexual economy. It will take place on Friday, 23 September at 7 pm at Nyított Műhely (Budapest XII, Ráth György u. 4), with Judit Wirth, a lawyer, Vilmos Szilágyi, a psychologist, and Györgyi Tóth, a youth trainer and human rights trainer, and Klára Ungár, president of SZEMA, as moderator.

The appeal for freedom of worship by Gábor Iványi of the Hungarian Gospel Brotherhood reads: "We, Hungarian democrats, raise our voices for freedom of conscience and worship and against Act 2011/C on the legal status of churches, religious denominations and religious communities passed on 12 July 2011." You may subscribe to this online http://www.vallasszabadsag.atw.hu/ or by post (MET, 1410 Budapest, Pf. 200) or personally )1086 Budapest, Dankó u. 11).

The newsletter draws attention to a campaign to persuade as many Gypsies as possible to declare themselves proudly as such in the forthcoming National Census.

The question of the government falling back on Jobbik for policy ideas is one of six political issues explored in the Blog section of the Newsletter.

15 September is the International Day of Democracy following a UN General Assembly decision to that effect taken by consensus in November 2007. It notes that the Hungarian Parliament subscribed to the General Assembly resolution on 15 September 2008.