Warning Strike by Hungarian Teachers

More than 20,000 teachers have taken part in Monday's nationwide teachers' strike, which is "a celebration of democracy in education," the president of the Teachers' Trade Union (PSZ), Zsuzsa Szabó said in Budapest on Monday, the state news agency MTI reports.

At a joint press conference with the Democratic Trade Union of Teachers (PDSZ), she added that "we can be proud of the teachers because they have set an example".    

"No matter how much energy the government put into preventing the strike, it was achieved," she said.

The PSZ president also stressed that the participants pointed out that there was a big problem in education, especially in financing teachers and other staff in public schools because if it continued like this, there would be no teachers to teach children, "our children would have no future, this society would have no tomorrow."

Zsuzsa Szabó said that after Monday's warning strike, a general walkout was planned for 16 March if no agreement could be reached with the government on their demands.

The opposition parties have expressed their sympathy, solidarity and support for the demands of the teachers while the governing party Fidesz issued a statement calling the strike a "campaign action by the left."