There is only one woman in the government, and their ‘share’ in the Parliament is only 8.8 %. We are competing with Malta for the last place among the member states. Only MSZP (Hungarian Socialist Party) and LMP (Politics Can Be Different) has a quota for women. With the exception of MSZP, none of the parties ran a female candidate during the mid-term parliamentary elections. (It is promising that MSZP had female candidates during the last two mid-term elections, and it nominated a young woman to the Budapest Municipal Assembly).
We could continue the list of examples but the overall picture is more important. The Lisbon Treaty states: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.” The Venice Commission also stated that these values are violated in Hungary. Unfortunately we are not heading to Europe.
It has serious consequences that the government does not make use of the economic and social potential of the women’s labour force. It is not by chance that Fidesz created only 800 jobs instead of one million. At this pace they will need 880 years to reach that goal. It is time for Fidesz to admit: without women it is impossible.
Zita Gurmai, Népszabadság, May 7. 2012.