Orbán: The 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”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told an international press briefing on Thursday.

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, Orban 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’s goal concerning each of these struggles had been clear. Hungary, he noted, had to stay out of the war, keep the increased threat of terrorism outside the country, curb migration, push down inflation, and reach an agreement with Brussels “despite the constant impedance”.

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

Orban said families had also struggled this year because the war had brought with it sanctions and rising energy prices, which had endangered the value of pensions and wages.

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. After reaching 4-5 percent earlier this year, the decline in real wages is set to be pushed under 1 percent by the end of the year, he said.

Detailing the government’s support measures, Orban noted the revamped home purchase subsidy scheme, saying the government trusted that the CSOK Plusz 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.

On another subject, the prime minister said the European parliamentary elections would be at the centre of next year’s political goals. 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”. Moreover, it ignored the problems that people struggled with, both in Hungary and in the whole of Europe, he added.

Orban 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”, while 2024 would be “a year of grand plans”, adding that Hungary would try to achieve a significant political turnaround in the EP elections.

Meanwhile, Orban announced the launch of a three-year scheme to increase the salaries of school and kindergarten teachers that would see their average salary rise by 32.2 percent from January. He said the preconditions for the programme were “about to be met”.

He added, however, that a “legal act” was still missing: “Hungary must receive a letter from Brussels confirming they will cover a certain part of the pay hike.” He said the government had a plan in place for steps to be taken once the letter arrived.

He said the pay rise would be the first component in a three-year plan, to be followed by “smaller but still significant” hikes in 2025 and 2026, after which teachers’ average pay would reach 800,000 forints (EUR 2,080).

Orban said teachers’ salaries could vary based on their performance and geographical location.

Meanwhile, the prime minister said the new migration pact agreed on by the European Union was “certain to fail”.

Orban said that until the EU declared, as Hungary had, that anyone who wanted 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 was introduced would fail.

The prime minister said he was convinced that Hungary’s way of regulating migration could be taken as a “model” as the only one across Europe that had been proven to work, adding that “Brussels shouldn’t be attacking it”.

Asked to comment on the dismissal of the chief executive of Poland’s public television, Orban said he did not want to interfere in Poland’s affairs, adding, at the same time, that the debate in question was not restricted to Poland alone.

The prime minister said “strange things” happened “in the Western democratic world”, adding that in one western European “model democracy”, efforts were being made to stymie a leading presidential candidate by judicial obstacles, while a party with significant parliamentary representation could be under national security surveillance.

“There’s a disease gnawing at the vitals of western democracies,” the prime minister said, adding that “if all this was happening in Hungary, we may already have seen an incursion of NATO troops.”

Regarding the recent EU summit, Orban noted that he had tried to persuade the other member states over eight hours not to start accession talks with Ukraine as “that would be a mistake”.

Whereas Hungary did not “want the role of a Cassandra”, he said he could not say for sure what would happen, adding that Hungary had met the same kind of opposition in the EU over the issue of migration, which had then caused “great trouble” in Europe.

If Hungary persisted in holding the line after many years that Ukrainian accession was “not good”, then the Hungarian parliament would still have a decision ahead of it, and its approval ultimately would be required to ratify it. He added that a more realistic option, a strategic partnership, should be offered to Ukraine.

On the subject of the public finances, Orban said it was possible to provide financial support outside of the EU budget.

Orban said Hungary’s goal was not to “block things or to say no, but to say yes,” so that good decisions could be taken in Brussels. He said supporting Ukraine within the EU budget was not a good decision, as doing so may endanger other sections of the budget, such as funding earmarked for Hungary.

Concerning EU aid for Ukraine, the prime minister said: “This does not depend on whether the EU releases the funds payable to Hungary.” “The EU’s formula to punish Hungarian children through the Erasmus programme, when they have a problem with the country, is far from the Hungarian spirit … we consider this petty and we will not do anything of the kind; we will not couple things of a different nature,” he said.

“An agreement on Ukraine will not follow when Hungary receives money but when the proposal in itself makes sense,” Orban said, adding the most important requirement was that aid for Ukraine “must come from outside the budget and should not be linked to other budgetary issues.”

The EU budget, he added, was appropriate and “it would cause problems if we touched it … we won’t ask for anything else; just that the budget should be implemented.” Money for Hungary was included in the EU budget and those funds were “due”. “But if they start changing the budget, Hungarian interests will be present and we will negotiate accordingly.”

The prime minister noted that Hungary had called for a ceasefire in Ukraine, regardless of any post-war settlement. After that, he said, time must be allowed to develop the framework for peace negotiations. “If Europe does not start negotiations, there’s a risk that Russia could come to an agreement with the United States and leave the Europeans out of it,” he said.

Orban said it was important for Hungary not to share a border with Russia. “There should always be … a state in between. That has so far been Ukraine,” he said, adding that the situation had not changed because Hungary had willed it.

He added that Hungary will not consent to being drawn into the war. “We do not want to be part of an alliance with a country that is currently fighting a war on its eastern border,” he said, indicating that this was position was shared by NATO. He said Ukraine’s NATO membership would mean that Hungary would have to send troops to Ukraine the very next day.

Concerning an invitation by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Orban said they had been “swept together” at the inauguration ceremony of the Argentinian president in Buenos Aires, where Zelensky “offered talks and I accepted”.

But first, topics should be clarified in preparatory talks between the two countries’ foreign ministers, he said. On the subject of Ukraine’s EU membership, EU ministers must first come to an agreement, he added.

Regarding the EU summit next February, he said that two issues on the agenda cold be taken separately: one was EU financial support for Ukraine and the other a request by individual member states for independent budget changes. Concerning the proposed aid for Ukraine, Orban said: “Twenty-six member states support giving 50 billion euros to Ukraine over four years, a sum which we do not currently have, so the community would have to take out a loan as part of the seven-year budget framework.”

He said it was important to identify a “meaningful timeframe” for the aid to be forwarded, since “we have no idea what will happen in a quarter of a year”. The aid should be “tied to America’s commitment” because “commitments of an uncertain magnitude could unravel our own budget”. Alternatively, each member state could contribute “in proportion to their GDP”, he suggested.

“We don’t want to take out a loan in cooperation with anyone,” Orban said. “We don’t want to make the same mistake as with the recovery fund. The pandemic is over, yet several member states have not received funds due to them.” “It isn’t sensible to borrow money in cooperation with other countries while we’re in a political dispute with those very countries,” the prime minister said.

Regarding initiatives for other amendments to the EU budget, Orban said that if such a process started, “Hungary will do the same”. “This is ahead of us and will become clear in the next month,” he said.

Asked whether Hungarians in Transcarpathia would be better off if Ukraine became member of the EU, Orban said: “Yes, that can be done in a way that they will be better off”.

The fact that former Ukrainian president Poroshenko was not allowed to leave his country because he was reported to be on his way to meet the Hungarian prime minister, Orban said he was more forgiving than public opinion as he recognised that Ukraine was at war and must enforce extraordinary rules.

“I have no word of criticism on this: if the Ukrainian state believes that someone’s departure from the territory of the country poses a risk to national security, they must act accordingly”. At the same time, Orban suggested that “if a Ukrainian citizen meeting a Hungarian prime minister carries a national security risk, how does Ukraine mean to become a member of the EU?”

Answering a question about whether Hungary was threatened under the Article 7 procedure, Orban dismissed its significance, noting the procedure had been initiated long ago.

The current procedure, he said, was not aimed at taking away any rights from Hungary. In any case, stripping a member state of its right to vote could be initiated under the EU Treaty only if there was a persistent threat of the violation of the rule of law, he added.

The European Commission, he noted, had just declared that Hungary’s judicial system in compliance with EU norms, adding that “Hungary has the most freshly assessed and best judicial system in the entire European Union; we have just received a document that is proof of it.” Far from being pushed towards the end-goal of the Article 7 procedure, it has become obvious that there was no reason to initiate such a procedure, he said.

Regarding EU funding, Orban said it was generally recognised that Hungary had been “blackmailed in Brussels”, and the blackmailers were members of the European parliament. Orban said there was “not much we can do about that”. Hungary, he added, complied with all requirements regarding the rule of law and was cooperative. Whenever the Commission had specific requests, Hungary would implement “almost everything”, he said.

“In this situation of blackmail, Hungary will do everything in its power to assert its interests,” Orban added.

Regarding the EP election, he said Fidesz MEPs were in talks with the European conservatives but they would not give up their status as independent MEP’s until after the election.

Orban said “things are going unbearably badly in Brussels” as there was no peace along the borders of the EU and the European economy was not getting stronger. “Our plan is to join forces with the right wing that is now becoming stronger in Europe and create sufficient attraction on the centre right,” thus achieving a different kind of migration, economic and foreign policy, he said.

Regarding the Hungarian 2024 EU presidency, the prime minister said Hungary would largely assume an intermediary role. “How we can protect our national interests, too, is a difficult question,” he added.

Concerning Visegrad Group cooperation, Orban said it was “sad” that it had fallen apart, partly due to internal divergences and partly due to external pressure. There is a chance, he said, that in February, during the Czech presidency, there would be a meeting of V4 prime ministers, where they could reconsider whether central European strategy still had any viability amid the changed circumstances. He noted that the V4 was created with the aim of not having a Franco-Germany axis decide all important matters in Europe, but for central Europe, too, to have weight, importance and a voice.