"Several Pécs-based Socialists called for the earliest possible removal of party chairman Ferenc Gyurcsány at Saturday’s closed meeting of the party national council.HírTV quoted Pécs chapter secretary István Komáromi as saying Gyurcsány is responsible for the party’s low standing in the polls. “At this juncture we need a prime minister – I have not named him – who is accepted by the vast majority of society and with whom the opposition will engage in dialogue. It is therefore no solution that Ferenc Gyurcsány enters Parliament, and the opposition leaves. We should think of a change of prime minister for tactical considerations,” Magyar Hírlap reports. His words went unheeded, Népszabadság adds.
National council leader Gábor Simon told reporters that the election of new officials had been raised, but not with “personal overtones”. Gyurcsány was not urged to resign “face to face,” Magyar Hírlap writes.
In a one-hour speech to the gathering, Gyurcsány envisaged a bright future, stating that the economy is growing at an accelerating pace, inflation is decreasing, incomes are rising, and so are pensions. He said the goal is for the government to preserve social security while encouraging economic growth by 2010, the goal being to exceed the EU average of economic growth by 2%.
Gyurcsány dismissed the Ft 1,000 billion tax reform outlined by Free Democrat chairman János Kóka, and promised a tax correction and the transformation of the benefit system. He said he would tie the payment of social benefits to work, whereas the Free Democrats wanted to link benefits to inflation, which, Gyurcsány said would not benefit pensioners. This led to a heated debate with the Free Democrats, which caused the break-up of the coalition, he added.
Chief accountant Mária Nagy Brecska was elected party treasurer, succeeding László Puch, who has been appointed state secretary at the Transport Ministry."
Source: Hungary Around the Clock.
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02.06.2008