Thousands of teachers, students and parents protested in the Hungarian capital on Saturday in solidarity with teachers fired from schools in Budapest after taking part in a demonstration that authorities consider illegal, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

Protest of students, parents and teachers in BudapestPhoto: ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP / Profimedia

Teachers have been demanding higher wages and a solution to the teachers’ crisis, as well as the right to strike, which has been curtailed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government after a nationwide teacher strike in January this year.

Several teachers from three high schools in Budapest were fired on Wednesday for taking part in demonstrations and not showing up to class.

Participants in Saturday’s protest displayed placards with messages such as “Hands off our teachers” and “Shame on Orbán”, while several students organized a week-long picket outside the Interior Ministry, which is also responsible for education.

“It’s a psychological war, but we’re not at war, I’m a teacher,” said Maria Nemes, a 50-year-old English teacher who was fired from Karinthy Frigyes High School this week and who, after nearly 20 years in the department, will win about 600 euros for moon.

The Hungarian government has said it will raise teachers’ salaries after the European Commission gave the green light to EU recovery funds.

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After years of fruitless wage demands, teachers in Hungary, who are paid between HUF 170,000 (€410) and HUF 396,000 (€950) a month, have raised their voices in anger at a decree passed in February that severely limits the right to strike.

Tens of thousands of Hungarian teachers have repeatedly taken to the streets since the beginning of the school year.

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