Hungary defends utility price cuts against Brussels’ plans
Hungary must defend the achievements of its public utility cost reduction scheme, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.
In a regular interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió, the prime minister said Brussels wanted to raise electricity and fuel prices on the grounds of fighting climate change. Brussels wants to introduce “a complex system” to tax families with cars and homes but the Visegrád Group countries are resisting such a step and will not approve at next week’s European Union summit any decision that would raise electricity and gas prices, he said.
Orbán said that though it was important to fight climate change, its costs should be borne by the world’s top emitting companies rather than households.
Orbán said that though it was important to fight climate change, its costs should be borne by the world’s top emitting companies rather than households.
This, he said, required an energy price regulatory framework and the elimination of speculative elements, and warned that “when we allow money into areas where it has no place . there will always be a problem.”
Orbán said
households in Vienna and Berlin today were paying two to three times more for electricity and gas than in Budapest,
adding that gas prices were eight times as high in Sweden as in Hungary.
The prime minister noted that the “years-long fight” to cut utility prices was one of his government’s first battles with Brussels. If utility prices in Hungary were set by the market,
The prime minister noted that the “years-long fight” to cut utility prices was one of his government’s first battles with Brussels. If utility prices in Hungary were set by the market,
an average Hungarian family would be paying 380,000-400,000 forints (EUR 1,060-1,110) more in utility costs annually,
he added.
Orbán said the previous Socialist-liberal governments had given multinational energy companies permission to raise prices about 15 times, adding that the leftist opposition in parliament “is again demanding that the government introduce market prices for gas and electricity”.
Orbán said the previous Socialist-liberal governments had given multinational energy companies permission to raise prices about 15 times, adding that the leftist opposition in parliament “is again demanding that the government introduce market prices for gas and electricity”.
We, as inhabitants of this planet, we are all obliged to do all that we can to mitigate climate change, after all we, our children, and our grandchildren will be the beneficiaries.
Yes, the people of Vienna and Berlin might be paying more for their gas and electricity, but their salaries/wages exceed that of the people of Hungary. Monthly averages wages in Austria are 2,973 Euros, in Germany it’s 2,913 Euros, while Hungarians earn a pitiful 857 Euros per month (average). Swedes might be paying 8 times more than Hungarians, but their wages/salaries also exceed that of Hungarians, i.e. 2,803 Euros/month.
Irrelevant to the above story, but I might as well give voice to something that’s been bugging me for a while. Many a time, I asked myself, why does PM O. have so many issues with the EU. He likes to bite the hand that feeds his people’s country. He seems to like to be in the limelight (regardless of the reason). On and off, he threatens to leave the EU. If Hungary does ever leave, who will replace financing all his grandiose projects, his new football stadiums, his new sports stadiums and etc.? Oh yes, the Chinese Communist Party might, but then, they might not, well, maybe not as freely as if Hungary was in the EU. As long as Hungary is in the EU, China has an insider to serve it’s purposes.
Ps. I’m not a tree-hugger, nor a militant climate-change activist, I am an expat Hungarian, who cares deeply about his country and Hungarians the world over.
“I am an expat Hungarian, who cares deeply about his country and Hungarians the world over.”
I find your closing statement hard to believe. Your attacks on Hungary belie your declared caring for Hungary. Close to 200 thousand Hungarians escaped from Hungary after the Soviets crushed the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. I don’t recall any of us referring to ourselves as “expat”.
I suspect that you didn’t escape from Hungary but freely moved to the West in hopes of better income. Nothing really wrong about that as long as the expat don’t start running down the country the expat “cares deeply about”.
#”István” ( 16/10/2021 at 12:30 ), and any/or all other compatriots whom I may have offended by referring to myself as an “expat”. My most sincere apologies if you, and/or anyone-else who takes offence to the application of the said word to mean me. You are absolutely correct, I’m not a “Freedom fighter” from ’56. I wasn’t even born in ’56, my father was only a child in 1956, but my dear grandfather was there in 1956, and thanks to him, I’m very well informed. Please allow me to clarify my use of the term by quoting from Wikipedia: “An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person residing in a country other than their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either independently or sent abroad by their employers. However, the term ‘expatriate’ is also used for retirees and others who have chosen to live outside their native country. Historically, it has also referred to exiles”. Therefore, in the strictest sense of (some) dictionary definitions, I may not be an “expat”. I have not renounced my citizenship, not have I neither been expelled, nor exiled. My citizenship has not been taken away from me. I’m one of those people (so as not to further offend you, I won’t use “expat”) who is a professional, a skilled professional, who works for a multi-national. I was offered a choice to, either work abroad, and further my career, or stay at home and languish without any chance of a promotion. I chose the former option. I regularly go home. Due to work commitments I have not been home (in Hungary) for 3 years now. Again, you are absolutely correct, I have not “escaped”, nor did I infer (or write) that I “escaped”. I do not jump to conclusions, nor form opinions about people who comment here. One cannot come to conclusions, or form opinions, about other people until they get to know each other on a personal level, and get to know each other very well. Despite what you seem to infer, I will not conclude that you are a “Freedom fighter”. I will not conclude that you are a one-eyed fan of the PM (to each his/her own). One who categorises, or pigeon-holes, anyone by declaring that they are attacking (or “running down”) Hungary just because they voice their personal opinion about a country’s government (or PM), an opinion which does not seem match theirs. I was not asking anyone to believe (or disbelieve) anything I wrote. I merely stated what I thought. Furthermore, please allow me categorically state that I did not attack Hungary, not our people. I voiced my personal opinion on our football-loving PM and some of his great achievements (more than two dozen stadia since 2010 ). Now, I ask, if anyone does not favour the government of the day, are they traitors? Are they all attacking Hungary? Further, I was one of those voters who was elated when FiDESZ first came to power, but that was then, things have changed, the party’s direction has changed, the PM has changed. Let me assure you that I will back home in May next year. I will cast my vote, and I’m sure you will continue to be patriotic and cast yours too. I (still) believe that both you and, I are equally entitled to voice our opinions, whether it be a Freedom fighter from ’56, or someone who believes that he did not really have much of a choice (just like SOME Freedom fighters) but to go and work away from their Homeland. Incidentally, my grandfather also told me that prior to (and even after) 1990, there were many Hungarians who actually considered those Freedom fighters who escaped to be traitors, just because they escaped, took flight. I even know of an elderly Hungarian gent who was at Ferihegy Airport’s passport control in 1996 and was spat upon by a female official and called traitor. The gent was Hungarian, but he was not even born in Hungary, and he was only four years old in 1956. No doubt, that particular official thought that he was a returning Freedom fighter, when he was only transiting Hungary. Ps. The translation of “Expatriate” in NTC’s Hungarian-English-Hungarian Dictionary (T. Magyar and L. Kiss) is also “Külföldön élő hazánkfia. In my many travels, I have met, and befriended many Magyar emigrés, and Freedom fighters. I have attended many social functions held by overseas Hungarian communities, including those held by MHBK’s. We talk about politics, we talk about our Homeland, we don’t all see eye to eye, but none of them ever thought that my views, or opinions are “running down the country”, nor attacking it.
P.p.s. Correction: The year that that particular gent was at Ferihegy Airport was not 1996, it was 1986. My apologies for my typo.