Government reintroduces Covid-19 restrictions

A left-wing columnist lambasts the government for hesitating to reintroduce mandatory face masks on public transportation. His colleague takes up the defence of the Prime Minister against what he deems exaggerated accusations.

In Népszava, András Rostoványi asks why the government had to wait until 800 people died in the fourth wave of the pandemic to make travel on public transport conditional on wearing face masks. The authorities were too proud of the results of their vaccination campaign, he believes, and this is what prompted them to withdraw even the most elementary restrictions like mandatory facemasks. They should be ashamed, Rostoványi writes, and suggests they should not just wear their masks behind closed doors, but in the streets as well, to avoid being recognized by passers-by.

In the same daily, Péter Németh, the recently reinstated editor-in-chief, criticises opposition MP Ákos Hadházy who said that Prime Minister Orbán has profited from the deaths of tens of thousands of coronavirus victims, most of whom were elderly people whose pensions were a burden on the budget. Németh admits that he holds the Prime Minister capable of many things, but certainly not of speculating on citizens’ deaths.

Tags: Hadházy, Orbán