Climate protection: PM Orbán holds propaganda speeches instead of acting

The opposition LMP has slammed Viktor Orbán’s recent remarks on climate protection, calling on the prime minister to “take action rather than holding propaganda speeches”.

After a two-day summit of the European Union’s heads of state and government, Orbán said on Tuesday that Hungary wanted large polluters rather than Hungarian families to bear the costs of climate protection, saying ordinary people should not have to pay higher taxes on fuel and household energy.

In a video posted on Facebook on Wednesday, LMP party co-leader Erzsébet Schmuck accused the prime minister of

“continuing to block more stringent climate regulations”

in the EU and of “protecting the interests of the German car industry as opposed to the Hungarian people.”

Schmuck said the government channelled huge sums of money towards the car industry, which was responsible for a big chunk of carbon dioxide emissions, Schmuck said.

She said Orbán was correct that large corporations played a significant role in climate change, and she urged green taxation policies as a deterrent.

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Meanwhile, 60 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in Hungary come from households and transport, she said. LMP has called for complex reconstruction programmes and the development of community transport to make more efficient use of energy and boost the use of sustainable resources, she said.

The LMP co-leader called on Orbán to back her party’s proposal to target a 65 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, rather than the 40 percent proposed by the Fidesz majority.

“Unless the government starts down that path, the Hungarian people will pay the price of the adverse effects of climate change rather than large polluters

— all propaganda speeches notwithstanding,” she said.