2023-07-29 09:35:28
After two weeks, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave his usual interview on Kossuth radio on Friday. It was primarily about inflation, the Ukraine war and migration.
Orbán described the fight against inflation as the most important economic policy measure. “The big food chains, the multinationals are behaving like price speculators. They raise prices even when there’s no reason to,” Orbán said. That is why the government has taken measures such as price caps, interest rate freezes, price monitoring, mandatory discounts and grocery shopping with the SZÉP recreation card. The government’s goal is to bring inflation below 10% by the end of the year.
“The multinationals speculating on the prices work together with the Brussels bureaucrats. We cannot accept that there is unjustified speculation in food prices; this is outrageous, wrong and must be fought.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orban
“Unfortunately, while the whole country is struggling against inflation and especially against the rise in food prices, there are some who do not want to join this fight and even want to take advantage of the situation,” Orbán said. The multinationals are also raising the prices of imported food, and while some of the price hikes in Hungarian products feed back to local farmers, the increase in the price of imported food is unjustified and unacceptable. Orbán stressed that this was simply “profiteering”. The Consumer Protection Agency has already imposed fines of HUF 3 billion.
Sommeruni: Reactions more exciting than the speech itself
Orbán said the summer university in Tusnádfürdő, Transylvania, was an iconic place for the conservatives, and that the genre of his speech there was undefinable. He uses the opportunity to speak in Tusnádfürdő to offer a common reflection, so the reactions are always more exciting than his speech itself.
He sees enormous opportunities in cooperation with Romania and Slovakia. The new Romanian Prime Minister is young, strong and agile; Orbán wants to establish a good relationship with him.
Referring to Hungarian domestic politics, the prime minister said that leftists and liberals have become provincial: they don’t read, don’t follow events, don’t accept new things, recite the same old mantras over and over again. “There are so many new things happening in the world. Some of them are dangerous, some are inspiring, they are all attractive, there is an intellectual spirit in domestic politics, but it is not to be found in the reactions of the Hungarian left,” Orbán said.
Ukraine effectively lost sovereignty
In connection with the Ukraine war, Orbán reiterated that it always makes sense to talk about peace and a ceasefire. The situation can only be solved through diplomacy and negotiations, the first step towards peace is an immediate armistice. “If the voice of the peace camp isn’t loud enough, the public will continue to think that war is the solution. Only perseverance and peace can end this conflict.” Ukraine’s sovereignty is effectively lost, as it is kept alive today only with Western money. The question now is how long Europe can hold out this war and how long the USA will spend countless billions.
The EU is demanding funding from its member states while owing Hungary large sums of money. Orbán estimates the cost of border protection and border fences at 2 billion euros, and the EU has not yet paid any money to Hungary from the reconstruction fund.
While the European economy is in trouble, the war is not over. “The EU has given more than 70 billion euros and we don’t know where it went, there is no accounting.” In this situation, the EU Commission is asking the member states for an additional 100 billion at the halfway point of the 7-year budget period. euros, Orbán explained further.
The EU has reached the limits of its capabilities. In addition, the member states are more concerned with their own domestic politics and the economic effects of the war. When the war broke out, Ukraine could have localized the conflict, as e.g. B. Angela Merkel did not allow the war to escalate in 2014. The West entered the war only “half-heartedly” because it preferred to send money and weapons to Ukraine rather than troops. In addition, the EU said goodbye to Russian gas, which led to enormous economic damage.
Orbán: “We want neither a migrant quota nor migrant ghettos
In the interview, Orbán described migration as a historical issue. “We don’t want a migrant quota or migrant ghettos, and if we don’t want that, there won’t be one either.” The risk of ruining the country is too high for Hungary.
The prime minister referred to the fact that Italy has long opposed binding quotas and the creation of migrant ghettos. When Rome changed its position and accepted these terms, only a few weeks later it received 19 billion euros from the recovery fund, but Hungary did not receive a penny.
“There are complicated games going on in the background that I don’t approve of,” Orbán said. “When you lose control and let in these people you know little or nothing about and who are from a different culture, you’ll eventually find that there are more and more of them. Then you start to feel like a ‘native’ in your own country without being asked – this can destroy a country,” Orbán concluded.
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