Orbán cabinet says new profit margin caps will result in tangible price reductions, Ukraine war approaches to end
A government decision to cap supermarkets’ profit margins at 10 percent will result in “visible and tangible” price reductions, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, told a weekly press briefing on Thursday.
New profit margin caps will be in force until May
Gulyás said the regulation would come into force on Monday. With the war in Ukraine approaching an end, unjustified price rises must be brought to an end, he added. Intervention in commerce is a “measure of last resort” for the cabinet, he said, but warned that if the profit margin cap was insufficient, there was “more radical” regulation that had precedents in the European Union. The government “has no qualms” about applying measures such as those in Croatia, he added.
He said the profit margin regulations would ban profit margins larger than 10 percent at retailers with revenues larger than 1 billion forints (EUR 2.5m), and prohibit price increases at products with a lower profit margin, he said. The profit margin cap is expected to reduce the prices of eggs, sour cream, flour and milk, as well as other products, Gulyás said. He added that checks for compliance with the new rule would start days after it comes into force.
If supermarkets raise the prices of other products to compensate for the lower margins, the government will intervene, he said. The profit margin cap will be in force until May 31.
The USA on side of peace
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Gulyás welcomed that the US “has come over to the side of peace”, as well as the ceasefire proposal already accepted by the presidents of Ukraine and the European Commission.
He said that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s proposal after his “peace mission” in the summer “had identical content”. “Had everyone acted as they are now … hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved,” he said. “While nobody is disputing Russia’s responsibility in violating international law, it is also true that those who rejected this proposal last July and tried to stigmatise and insult Hungary are now welcoming it. The senseless killing that has happened since then is on their head,” he said.
Ukraine is now starting the negotiations from a worse position than it was in last summer, he said. “We have squandered another six months.” “Like we said then, a peace [agreement] will be very difficult to finalise while the war is still raging. We will need a ceasefire first … and that will lay much better foundations for peace talks,” he said.
The EU wants to continue the war
At the same time, he said the decision of the European Parliament “urging further weapons deliveries and aiming to finance the continuation of the war”, was “nonsensical and unintelligible”. “It is especially sad that the European People’s Party, of which [opposition] Tisza is a member, is at the helm” of the initiative, he said.
Commenting on EC President Ursula von der Leyen’s statement before the EP that Ukraine should be an EU member by 2030, Gulyás said the aim was “outrageous and dangerous”. Gulyás said that goal was contrary not only to Hungarian interests but also the European treaties. Rather than promoting a “merit-based accession”, the European Commission is “trying to turn the process on its head and make it arbitrary”, he added.
Hungarians will decide about the EU accession of Ukraine
States that could join based on merit, “such as the Western Balkan states, especially Serbia”, were being made to wait, “but in the case of Ukraine, which could not join based on merit, they are setting impossible deadlines,” he said. “We are convinced that the people should be able to decide on that in Hungary,” he said. The vote on Ukraine’s membership will contain a single question, he added.
Hungary’s government sees Ukraine’s EU accession in the present situation as dangerous “because it could lead to an excessive debt burden of the European Union and the member states, to the loss of EU resources, especially the cohesion funds, it could ruin agriculture, bring up serious food security and security risks, put jobs and the pensions system at risk, and could bring health risks as well,” Gulyás said.
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All You-Know-Who needs to do is agree to the US proposed cease-fire? Ukraine is already on board! Just … Sign? Very simple, really. And this will demonstrate whether Russia is as committed to “Peace!” as our Politicians.