Small post offices being closed

A left-wing commentator fears that the decision by Magyar Posta, the national postal service, to temporarily close hundreds of small post offices will be definitive and will hit the most under-served Hungarians.

Magyar Posta has decided to temporarily close down 366 of their 2569 post offices to reduce the HUF 20 billion extra expenditure caused by soaring energy prices. The company announced that employees will be transferred to other units, and none will be dismissed. Meanwhile, mobile postal services will be introduced in 109 localities.

 In Népszava, Judit Doros points out that post offices are essential centres of social life in small settlements. People regularly gather there to pay bills and discuss matters of shared interest. Small settlements are typically inhabited by elderly people, she writes, who don’t use the internet and will have to travel to towns and cities to settle various matters that they could solve till now with the help of familiar postal staff. Those people now feel abandoned and will find it hard to adapt to what Doros calls ‘a new, rigid, soulless world.’

Tags: fuel price, postal service