Hungary votes "no" to health

Socialist Resistance no21 | page 6

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

MICA sell-off A national referendum in Hungary in early December registered a 2-1 majority against the government's planned privatisation of public hospitals.

34 per cent of the electorate took part in the referendum, with 1.85 million voting in support of the campaigners who have opposed privatisation.

However the numbers voting in opposition to privatisation fell just 150,000 short of the crucial figure of 25 per cent of the electorate, which would have forced the government to change its course.

The Hungarian Social Forum, which mobilised a huge effort to secure the referendum and get out the vote in such large numbers, has pressed ministers and the National Assembly to recognise that even if it does not have legal force, it is a clear indicator of public opinion.

Instead of selling off the hospitals, the campaigners argue, they should be maintained in state and municipal control: a National Health Development Programme should be launched, to include placing national insurance funds under democratic control, and seeking EU funds to develop facilities and services.