Orbán: ‘Brussels, Hungarian left-wing alliance must be stopped’ – UPDATE

Budapest, April 22 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday that the alliance of Brussels and the Hungarian left wing, whose intention is to “import many millions to Europe”, must be stopped.

He said the Schengen 2.0 action plan must be promulgated because Brussels had put forward an impossible proposal according to which Europe’s demographic and economic problems must be solved by allowing in more and more migrants.

Orbán added that all this tied in with a document published by former Socialist governments on migration policy, he said.

“This figured in the programme of previous Socialist governments: a tenth of the country would consist of foreigners within the foreseeable future,” he said, adding that this would be a “nightmare”.

He said the EU’s youth unemployment problems should be addressed by giving jobs European workers instead of bringing in “people from other cultures” who would raise social tensions and “increase the threat of terrorism”. But this issue cannot be discussed openly in western Europe where people “live in a bubble” and under “intellectual oppression”, he said.

Orbán said that while originally Germany and Hungary had taken two entirely different approaches to handling the migrant crisis, Germany, too, has started focusing on protecting the EU’s external borders.

Although they will never admit it, EU leaders are now prioritising border protection, just as Hungary did from the start, he said. The dispute within the bloc now centers on what to do with the people who have already been taken in or are currently entering the EU on their own, mainly through Italy, he said.

If a member state, at national level, decides to admit migrants without controls, the consequences of that decision would spread beyond its borders and this cannot be borne internationally, he added.

Orbán said that if his government’s referendum on refugee quotas failed to stop Brussels, Hungary could be put in a position where the EU would be the one to decide whom Hungarians have to live with.

Speaking about the Schengen area, the prime minister said member states must fulfill their Schengen responsibilities. If a member state is located on the area’s periphery, that state must ensure the protection of the external border. Member states that fail to comply with the Schengen rules should relinquish their border protection rights to the EU, and if they don’t, their Schengen membership should be suspended or they should be expelled from the bloc, Orbán said.

Orbán urged the EU to make a deal with the Libyan government as soon as possible on setting up a refugee camp on the country’s coast from where refugees can come to Europe in a controlled manner, provided that there is an EU country ready to take them in. The camp and the procedure as a whole should be financed completely by the EU, he said.

Update

Orbán: Hungary experiencing economic boom

Budapest, April 22 (MTI) – Hungary is experiencing a time of economic prosperity and will take another step forward in 2017, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public Kossuth Radio on Friday.

Speaking about next year’s budget, the prime minister said wages are continuously growing while unemployment is decreasing, something that Hungary “achieved without loans”. Furthermore, Hungary has managed to fully pay back the IMF-EU loan it took up in 2008 when the financial crisis hit, he noted.

Orbán also noted that the government is cutting taxes and raising the value of pensions.

Citing EU statistical data, he said the number of Hungarians living in poverty declined by 600,000 in 2013-2014.

He said next year’s budget will be characterised by tax cuts and helping people get a home. “There is also room for making progress in health care and education,” he added.

Wages for doctors and nurses must be increased as part of a comprehensive package “as part of decisions over 3-4 years to close the wage gap”, he said. The difference between doctors’ wages in the West and in Hungary should be reduced, but western wages cannot be introduced within a year or two, he said, adding that a chance for an agreement in ongoing talks between representatives of the government and health-care workers was on the cards.

He also said that during a visit in Germany earlier this week he met heads of Mercedes and Deutsche Telekom. Hungary signed an agreement with Telekom on ensuring broadband internet access for all corporations and households by 2018. In this respect, “we want to be the first in Europe, beating even Germany”, he added. Hungary’s government wants to continue reducing the internet VAT rate, he said. “We’ve started reducing the internet VAT rate and we want to continue this in the coming years, too,” Orbán added.

The government recently announced plans to reduce the VAT rate on internet service from 27 percent to 18 percent from next year. Subscribers are expected to save 13 billion-15 billion forints.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters