A ‘betrayal of the countryside’: Hungary’s agriculture minister slams Tisza Party’s call to cut EU grain subsidies

Hungary’s agriculture minister said on Sunday that he was “baffled” by Tisza Party leader Péter Magyar and his supporters’ call for an end to European Union subsidies to grain producers, preserving it only for vegetable and fruit production, and added that it was “the betrayal of the countryside” and would cause an unprecedented increase in food industry prices.

Hungary’s agriculture minister slams Péter Magyar

István Nagy told public radio that all EU agriculture ministers were in agreement that the common agricultural policy of the EU should have an own, separate budget resting on the two pillars of land-based subsidies and rural development. “This would guarantee food sovereignty for Europe and secure food supplies in the future,” he said.

István Nagy, Hungary’s agriculture minister, said it was “a huge success” that the agriculture ministers of 26 member states had accepted the Hungarian EU presidency’s proposal on the future of the common agricultural policy. Work is under way to achieve full agreement in the matter by December, when “a document will be put on the table that the Commission cannot neglect”, he added.

Commenting on the strategic document prepared by the European Commission on the future of the EU’s agriculture, the minister said that whereas the former document reflected the position of “people with two feet on the ground”, the latter had been prepared by a professor who did not “have much to do with the agrarian sector”.

Hungary’s agriculture minister added that the reason the a separate Hungarian proposal had been drafted was that the document commissioned by the EC is unacceptable to many countries, including Hungary, and the farmers.

Péter Magyar in response issued a statement saying that Hungary’s agricultural sector had been destroyed by the incumbent government. He said the government was to blame for the desolation of the countryside and the disappearance of Hungary’s once so famous horticulture, vegetable and fruit growing sectors.

“For 14 years, the Orbán-government’s decisions have been determined by how it can get advantages and free money to its own oligarchs. Orban and his circles have systematically played state-owned land into the hands of their own oligarchs while they have let Asian battery plants occupy our best quality land,” Magyar said in the statement.

He said that under Nagy’s “reign” as agricultural minister, food price inflation was “in a European record” 62 percent while Hungarian farmers had not received any support to offset the unfavourable consequences of sky-rocketing raw material and energy prices.

The Tisza leader also criticised the minister for being unable to protect Hungarian bee farmers “against cheap fake Chinese honey”.

He said his party was promoting a complex village rehabilitation program and an agricultural reform to strengthen family farms and save the Hungarian countryside.

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