Orban: FX consumer loan issues to be settled between banks, debtors

Budapest, January 18 (MTI) – Issues around consumer loans denominated in foreign currencies should be settled between lenders and borrowers, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public Kossuth Radio on Sunday.

Orban said the government could act as a mediator in the process, but cannot pass judgement.

The government has managed to resolve issues around forex mortgages, but consumer loans are a different matter, Orban noted. He also said that in light of relevant court rulings, risks arising from exchange rate fluctuations should be taken by the borrower.

Concerning international appreciation of the government’s move to convert forex mortgages into forint-based ones before a sudden strengthening of the Swiss franc against the forint, Orban said the government should now “be as modest as a violet” and thanked voters for their confidence in his Fidesz party and the central bank’s readiness to assist in the manoeuvre.

On the subject of migrants, Orban suggested that the terms immigration or emigration were not applicable within the European Union, since “it is within an economic area we created through a joint effort that we migrate”. Orban called it “absurd” that political messages are created using the subject of Hungarians emigrating to the UK or Germany.

Concerning illegal migration, Orban insisted that a high number of those crossing Hungary’s borders without a valid permit were aware that if they said they are asylum-seekers they could no longer be treated as migrants in search of a better life.

“We are a Christian country and we have compassion in our heart. Those who are hunted should be assisted,” Orban said, but added that economic immigrants must be rejected and “we must make it clear to them that they will not find a living in Hungary”.

“We do not want Hungary to become a destination for economic immigrants,” he said.

Orban noted that the number of asylum-seekers neared 43,000 in 2014, twice as much as in earlier years, and called the tendency “alarming”. He insisted that Hungary cannot rely on the EU and needs to protect itself.

“We need to fight so that Brussels should change the rules and stop forcing upon us unrealistic regulations” – he said.

The opposition Egyutt (Together), Dialogue for Hungary (PM) and Liberal parties criticised the prime minister for his remarks suggesting that the term emigration was not applicable between EU member states.

In a statement, Egyutt called Orban a liar, and insisted that most Hungarians working abroad had decided to do so because they had no work at home. “We could say that those people are economic refugees. Hungary misses those people that were forced out of the country by Orban’s rule,” it said.

“The greatest peril Hungary faces is not immigrants but policies harrassing the poor and communities that are peaceful but have a different culture,” the Liberals said in a statement.

In another statement, PM called Orban an “uncouth politician”, who “disturbed the silence of commemoration” on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto through “inciting xenophobic hatred” in his radio speech.

Photo: kolozsvaros.ro

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters