According to Orbán, Brussels cannot see real problems in Europe

Brussels cannot see the real problems in Europe, therefore, “our goal in the European parliamentary elections is to open the eyes of Brussels,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told an international press briefing on Thursday.

The European parliamentary elections are at the centre of next year’s political goals, the prime minister said. He said the general view in Hungary was that “the bureaucrats in Brussels live in a bubble”, that “Brussels is blind” and could not see “real life” and ignored the problems that people struggle with, both in Hungary and in the whole of Europe.

Orbán said the goal of the 2024 EP election therefore was to “open the eyes of Brussels, make them see reality and make European leaders capable of correcting the mistakes that they made in 2023”.

He said this year had been one of “great struggles” and 2024 would be “a year of great plans”, adding that Hungary will try to achieve a significant political change in the EP elections.

Orbán: New EU migration pact ‘certain to fail’

The new migration pact agreed on by the European Union is “certain to fail”, Orbán said.

Until the EU declares, as Hungary has, that those who want to enter the bloc’s territory must submit an application to do so and wait outside the EU’s borders for their request to be assessed, any package that is introduced will fail, Orbán said.

The prime minister said he was convinced that Hungary’s way of regulating migration was the “model regulation” and the only one in all of Europe that had been proven to work.

Orbán: Goal is for families to be in focus in 2024

The goal in 2024 is to return the focus of politics to families after a year of “great struggles”, Orbán said.

If Hungarians spent 2023 “struggling and working to protect what they had”, the government hopes that the country will be working to take a step forward in 2024, Orbán said.

The prime minister said 2023 had been a year of “great struggles”, noting the challenges of the war, the growing threat of terrorism, migration, inflation and Brussels.

He said the government had accomplished its goals when it came to addressing inflation, the war, migration and the threat of terrorism.

Orbán said families had also struggled this year. He said the government had succeeded in protecting the value of pensions, adding that wages would also be protected to a greater extent than it appeared during the middle part of the year.

Orbán: Govt to start 3-year pay hike programme for teachers

The government is planning to launch a three-year programme to increase the salaries of school and kindergarten teachers, Orbán said.

Orbán said the preconditions for the programme were “about to be met”.

He said the government trusted that the CSOK Plusz home purchase subsidy programme would help tens of thousands of families. He also noted a recent agreement between employers and employees under which minimum wages would be raised by 10 and 15 percent, respectively.

The prime minister also said the government guaranteed to preserve the value of pensions, adding that the purchasing power of pensions could even increase in the wake of lower than expected inflation.

Szijjártó: UN unanimously supports Hungary-sponsored resolution

The general assembly of the United Nations has unanimously adopted a resolution initiated by Hungary aimed at improving the water supply and sanitary conditions for health care institutions, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook on Thursday.

Referring to the Hungarian government’s earlier commitment to contributing to efforts aimed at meeting water-related challenges, Szijjártó said those global problems “pose serious risks, and could easily trigger further waves of migration.”

The new resolution could be “a step in removing the shocking fact” that 20 percent of the world’s health facilities have no proper drinking water and hygiene, impacting some 1.7 billion people, the minister said.

“We have invested a lot in the most modern water and water management technologies, bringing Hungary in the global forefront of the water industry,” Szijjártó said.

He added that the Hungarian initiative was co-sponsored by 54 other UN members, which is “a clear recognition of Hungary’s effort.”

Read also:

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• Szijjártó: We strongly reject new EU pact