MPs of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance boycotted a meeting of parliament’s welfare committee on Monday, Zoltán Varga, the committee’s head delegated by opposition Democratic Coalition said. Varga told journalists that the agenda of the meeting, thwarted for the second time, would have included opposition proposals such as tackling the “catastrophic” situation around Hungary’s health services such as “the serial dismissal of doctors and the shuttering of hospital wards”. The opposition parties invited Interior Minister Sandor Pinter to the meeting, but he said he “could only attend towards the end of the year”, Varga said. At the press conference, DK politician Erzsébet Gy. Nemeth demanded that retirees receive a 1.5% pension increase retroactively from January 2022, while those whose payments are lower than last year’s median pension should receive a supplement of 100,000 forints.