Government press briefing: Pensioners to receive bonus in November

Hungary’s pensioners will receive a bonus in November, the government office chief announced at his regular press briefing on Thursday.

János Lázár argued that the national economy was doing well, and insisted that “pensioners must be given a share of the common success and assets”.

On another subject, Lázár said that

the European Union’s mandatory migrant quota “has failed”.

He argued that the European Commission has “declared victory” concerning the mandatory quota but in reality it has failed, since Malta has been the only country that fulfilled it. At the same time, the EC has filed infringement procedures against three countries only, he added.

Lázár also announced that the government has started posting its questionnaires in a national survey concerning the “Soros plan”,

and encouraged voters to participate. He insisted that “consultations on migration” were of a special significance because “those having a distinct position will support the government’s policy” and added that the government needed continual feedback concerning the migrant issue.

On the subject of debates around offers of holiday opportunities to the children of refugees, Lázár said that “people with refugee status in Hungary can rely on the Hungarian state”. He said that organisations that “had selected a boarding house in a town to send children to rather than approaching the Hungarian state” were “irresponsible”. He also blamed the organiser of the planned camp for not providing sufficient information to local people, which resulted in an uproar among residents.

Referring to a recent visit by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Romania, Lázár said that

the government would use 21 billion forints (EUR 67.4m) to improve mostly church-run creches and kindergartens for ethnic Hungarian children in neighbouring countries.

He said that the programme would help increase the number of places in such institutions from 48,000 last year to 60,000 in the next two or three years.

Lázár confirmed that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker and the prime ministers of the Visegrad Group will hold a joint working dinner ahead of a European Council meeting later this month.

Answering a question about the European Union’s infringement procedure against Hungary over Hungary’s NGO law, Lázár said that the government was not planning to change the contested legislation. He argued that the European Commission had similar regulations and accused the body of applying double standards against Hungary.

Similarly, the government will not propose changing Hungary’s higher education law, Lázár added.

Concerning an oncology centre to be built in Vietnam as part of an assistance programme, Lázár said “the government is bent on participating in the programmes of the United Nations and other international organisations”. He also argued that the government had recently spent 500 billion forints (EUR 1.6m) on domestic health projects.

The government plans to raise the funds allocated to tourism by 600-800 billion forints by 2030, Lázár said.

Tourism currently provides 9-10 percent of the GDP.

The government plans to raise this share to 16-17 percent, he said. The first tenders, targeting development of small bed and breakfast accomodations, will be published “within days”, he said.

Lázár said that the National Association of Student Enterprises (DiákÉsz) had asked the government to compensate for students impacted by “the Czeglédy-issue”, referring to leftist lawmaker Csaba Czeglédy of Szombathely, western Hungary. Lázár said the government is “looking into providing 100 percent damage control” and would like to close the issue “within weeks”.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI