Published: 4.1.2021
Despite several inquiries, Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi has not received any substantive information on the details of Hungary’s covid vaccination strategy.
For this reason, he is turning to the President of the European Commission to find out what strategic plan the Hungarian Cabinet has submitted to Brussels in this regard, the politician of MSZP announced at his online press conference on Saturday. As a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health István Ujhelyi has repeatedly submitted requests for accessing data of public interest to the relevant ministries, but claims he has not received substantive response from anywhere.
The MEP indicated that while the Ministry of Human Capacities responsible for healthcare had responded that it was not competent in the matter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior Affairs had set a deadline of 45 days instead of the statutory 15-day response, claiming that responding now would jeopardise performing emergency-related tasks. “What on earth are they on about? This is absolute nonsense,” assessed István Ujhelyi the government’s responses in his online press conference, adding that he had to turn to the European Commission because the Hungarian government is clearly sneaky and lying regarding the matter.
According to MSZP’s politician, “shocking professional mistakes” were made in connection with the government’s crisis management: the testing period, the acquisition of assets and the mitigation of economic damage, including the improvement of the situation of families, were “surrounded by lies”. According to Ujhelyi, the government is prevaricating about the vaccination strategy: the head of government had previously referred to it as an existing document; a government body said they were working on it, while the chief medical officer enigmatically called it “dynamically expanding”.
At his press conference on Saturday, the European politician of MSZP also complained that the leaders of the Hungarian government, unlike the future leaders of the United States or the current Heads of other European Member States, are not doing very well in terms of having people vaccinated and do not set a good example in this matter. “Viktor Orbán tries to fool people by stating he shall wait in line for his turn on the vaccination list. We all know who comes first in the queue, but we do not know their basis for classification or who decides on this issue at all.
Moreover, we all know that the prime minister was not so polite when he campaigned with the flu vaccine, which later turned out to be in short supply, ”Ujhelyi said, adding that he would get himself vaccinated as soon as he had the opportunity.
“We have a right to know exactly what the government’s vaccination strategy includes, and on what schedule, in what scope, and with what background capacity the government plans to administer vaccines! There are human lives at stake, hundreds die every day! Without honest communication, society will be plunged into a more serious health and livelihood crisis,” the European politician of MSZP stressed. István Ujhelyi added that the government does not provide adequate information on how it can help, for example, citizens who are forced to travel for business or commercial reasons, but are expected to be admitted to the destination countries only with a vaccination certificate.
“Thanks to the European Union, we have a vaccine; Fidesz should only have laid a suitable vaccination plan and a campaign to encourage vaccination on the table. They failed at both,” said the European politician of MSZP.
Budapest / Brussels – 02.01.2021