Page 40 - Heroe Square News Today

Restaurants, Gyms Exempted from Rent Payments until May 31 The government has decided to grant exemption to restaurants, cafes and gyms from paying rent on state or municipally owned properties between Feb. 1 and May 31, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff said on Friday. Gergely Gulyás said that granting a similar exemption to tenants of privately owned properties would also be a “legitimate” proposal. Gulyás argued that Hungarian law offered a possibility for withholding rental payme...

As part of its action plan to relaunch the economy after the coronavirus pandemic, the Hungarian government has decided to introduce a new interest-free loan to help SMEs,  the Prime Minister announced on Thursday. Viktor Orbán also claimed that the action plan to relaunch the economy would have three phases.  SMEs can raise an interest-free loan with ten-year maturity of up to 10 million forints (EUR 28,000), with repayments deferred by three years, Orbán told the annual opening meeting o...

Employers of Hungary’s catering industry have explained the devastation the coronavirus pandemic has caused on their businesses. The Hungarian Gastronomic Association has offered solutions. The protests at Heroes’ Square calling for the reopening of catering businesses have been effective in bringing attention to the issue, but now people are looking for legal solutions. The main issue catering businesses have is that they cannot function well enough to stay in business due to coronavirus r...

Retail Sales Fall 3.2% in December, Edge Down 0.2% for Year Retail sales in Hungary fell by annual 3.2 percent in December, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Thursday. Adjusted for calendar year effects, retail sales fell by 4 percent, as food sales increased by 1.9 percent, but non-food sales declined 9.3 percent and vehicle fuel sales dropped by 11.9 percent. For the full year, retail sales edged down 0.2 percent. Annual retail sales have fallen every month since the start of the c...

Coronavirus: Jobbik Calls for 100 % Rent Relief for Businesses The opposition Jobbik party has called on the government to cover 100 percent of the rent payments of businesses reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. “The government is squandering one opportunity after the other” to help small and medium-sized companies hurt by the crisis, Jobbik deputy leader Dániel Z Kárpát told an online press conference on Wednesday. Z Kárpát said his party was proposing for the establ...

Coronavirus: Hungary Sees Plateauing Epidemic but Growing Tension in January Péter Cseresnyés 2021.02.02. Every coronavirus statistic in Hungary showed a significant improvement in January, indicating that the epidemic is plateauing in the country. As Europe is faced with the danger of a third covid wave, however, the Orbán government is reluctant to ease the strict lockdown rules until the country’s most vulnerable groups are vaccinated. But the process is...

Anti-Restriction Demonstrations Fail to Cause Mass Reopening in Hungary The mass reopening of stores movement is having little success in achieving its goal of mobilizing restaurants, cafés, and pubs around Hungary to reopen despite restrictions. While a few hundred people have been actively protesting coronavirus restrictions, catering businesses seem to remain silent. Whether it was due to the harshened restrictions the government put in place or the sudden payment of wage subsidies, restaur...

Hundreds of people gathered at Budapest’s Heroes’ Square on Sunday to protest coronavirus restrictions affecting small businesses. Police quickly responded. Protesters gathered at Heroes’ Square Sunday at noon to call for the easing of coronavirus restrictions, which have been extended until March. The current restrictions severely hamper the ability of catering businesses to survive. Since the restrictions do not allow for people to gather in large groups anywhere, participants were simp...

Hungarians Protest Against Lockdown Despite Gathering Ban BUDAPEST—Restaurant workers were among hundreds of people protesting against coronaviruslockdown measures on Sunday in Budapest, and at least 100 restaurants planned to re-open even as the government threatened them with heavy fines. People attend a demonstration against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) measures and their economic consequences at Heroes’ Square in Budapest, Hungary, on Jan. 31, 2021. (Bernadett Szabo/Reuters) Prim...

The Catering Rebellion: Businesses in Hungary to Protest Restrictions Multiple pubs, restaurants and cafés around Hungary have declared that they will be open for business in protest of coronavirus restrictions. The libertarian Down With 75% of Taxes party is organizing a country-wide reopening for February 1, during which many different catering businesses will once again be open for customers who wish to dine-in. The goal for these businesses is to open and allow customers to sit down to eat...