Socialists-Párbeszéd calls on government to pull out from EBRD agreement on FX loans

The opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd party alliance on Thursday called on the government to pull out from an agreement signed with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on the financing of loans taken out in foreign currencies, saying that it did not serve Hungarian people’s interests.

Signed in 2015, the agreement guaranteed that FX loans, which suffered greatly after the forint plummeted during the 2008 economic crisis, could be converted to forint-based loans “without any cost on the banks’ part” and that the Hungarian government would not stand in the way of evictions, László Szakács, the deputy head of the Socialist party, said on Friday.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “sold FX loan borrowers to the banks for money,”

Szakács said, noting that at a press conference on Thursday, Orbán pledged Hungary would keep the agreement.

The parties will submit the proposal to parliament, so “Fidesz can also vote on it”, he said.