This is why the government wants to announce a social programme for the period after the general election in 2018, he said.

Meanwhile, Lázár said the cabinet had heard the prime minister’s commissioner for Roma affairs Flórián Farkas and maintains trust in his work.

Eurostat figures show that since 2010, Hungary has improved its indicators for Roma inclusion. He said Farkas will attend a hearing of the European Union’s fraud office OLAF on August 24. Lázár speculated whether Farkas would attract the amount of press interest if he were not Roma.

On another topic, Lázár said the government is planning to launch a life career model for ambulance staff after ongoing consultations with them are completed.

The new scheme will affect 6,000-8,000 people. Significant improvements to ambulance services will result, he insisted.

Wages will continue to grow in health care. Every specialist doctor and pharmacist will receive 107,000 forints (EUR 344) higher monthly gross base wage from Sept. 1 and another 100,000 forints from November 1, 2017.

Resident doctors will receive 50,000 forints more from November 1, 2017, he said. Some 6 billion forints of EU money will be spent on completing unfinished development projects in a dozen hospitals, he added.

Speaking about Hungary’s performance in the Rio Olympics, he praised all Hungarian athletes participating, saying the government will assess the conditions in every sport after Rio 2016 and work out an appropriate support mechanism.

He confirmed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has travelled to Rio as the head of a Hungarian government delegation, which he said had carried out important work to convince the world that Budapest would be the most suitable place to host the 2024 Olympics, he added.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.