The Orbán government is giving Hungary’s 2.7 million pensioners a Christmas gift in the form of vouchers worth 10,000 forints (C$45). The vouchers, called Erzsébet utalvány and named after the thirteenth century Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, can be used to pay for food, goods and services at thousands of restaurants and shops in Hungary and at some domestic hotels and resorts. The benefits program was established in its current form in 2012 and over 800,000 Hungarians have been recipients, first and foremost large families, those living with disabilities and pensioners. This time, however, the government decided to provide a small gift to all pensioners right before the holidays, which nonetheless raises the question: does a one-time voucher replace the need to really examine and increase the dismally low pensions received by so many elderly Hungarians? And was this more of a political PR stunt at the end of a difficult political season for the governing Fidesz party?
Two Erzsébet vouchers totalling 4,000 forints (C$18) specifically designated to purchase food.
The fact that the government’s initial plan was to have government bureaucrats hand-deliver the vouchers to 2.7 million pensioners suggests that this was a political marketing exercise. The idea was not only bizarre, but it was simply impossible to execute before Christmas. Hungary’s civil servants working at the district level (one level below counties in Hungary) were furious. The union representing public sector employees noted that 70% of the civil servants tasked with hand delivering the vouchers were women and that they had been forbidden from taking vacation time in December in order to distribute the vouchers. The union demanded that the government rescind its plans and find another way to deliver these to pensioners.
As frustration with the government rose, Hungarian newspapers and news sites were flooded with letters from outraged civil servants, some of whom has been given 200 vouchers to single-handedly deliver to addresses throughout their district. Public employees were expected to work ten hour days. Beyond the nearly impossible task of delivering so many letters in just two weeks, civil servants were also concerned for their personal safety: after all, they were being forced to carry upwards of a million forints each in vouchers as they walked from house to house.
Civil servants who protested were threatened that they may lose their job.
Finally, however, the outrage became so vociferous that the Orbán government had to amend its plan and have regular postal workers deliver the vouchers, along with the other mail. János Lázár, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, met with Péter Boros, the union president representing public sector workers, and agreed to scrap the original idea.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office indicated: “The Minister representing the Office and the government listened to, considered and accepted the union’s feedback.”
The burden of delivering the vouchers then fell on Hungarian Post Ltd. (Magyar Posta), which bucked under the pressure of millions of new items to distribute. Hungarian Post is struggling with huge backlogs at their sorting facility outside of Budapest, packages and letters are piling up waiting to be delivered at the processing plant and many Hungarians won’t get the products and gifts that they ordered online in time for the holidays.
A move aimed at shoring up government support in Hungary’s most politically important demographic group–pensioners–may actually end up doing damage to the ruling party’s image.
