PM Orbán: Great Hungary-US deal on the horizon
“Donald Trump’s victory will primarily restore peace and broaden our economic possibilities,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview broadcast by commercial TV2 on Sunday night.
Hungary was a world centre this week
The prime minister added that “important achievements could be made, which would not be possible if the war (in Ukraine) went on, with a continued risk of Hungary becoming involved.”
Orbán said Hungary’s diplomacy “has not been as strong in the past 100 years”. The prime minister added that Hungary had not had “such strong influence in the world as now” especially considering Hungary’s small size.
While “they say so many things (about Hungary) in the West and it is difficult to tell what should be taken seriously … the problem cannot be too large if forty plus European heads of state will come to Hungary at the invitation of the Hungarian prime minister,” Orbán said referring to the recent European Political Community summit in Budapest. The prime minister highlighted the “efforts of many years” by European Affairs Minister János Bóka and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó that contributed to the success of Hungarian diplomacy.
Orbán said similar European summits “could be met with disinterest” but the Budapest meeting was the first such occasion after the US presidential election, and it also had the EU competitiveness pact, as proposed by the Hungarian EU presidency, on its agenda.
Peace budget in the pipe
According to the prime minister, “it is certain” that the government would prepare a “peace time budget” under which “we will spend less on war-related items and we could afford a lot more measures aimed at prosperity for the people.”
Orbán said next year would see “an unprecedented” programme to promote small business, loans for employees, as well as “opportunities for cheaper, more affordable housing” and a maintained 13th month pension scheme. He said Trump’s election was bringing the world “an enormous step closer to peace”, adding that “now the whole world is speculating” how the new president would achieve that.
Analysing the American elections, Orbán said the most important question is what will happen to Hungarians. “We Hungarians, the current Hungarian government must stand up for Hungarian interests,” he added. After Trump’s election, he said “we can achieve our interests and goals more easily than before, but only we can achieve them.” He warned however, that Trump is “not our saviour but our comrade-in-arms”. While Hungary “has often felt alone”, now “we are not alone anymore, the whole of America is with us, the American government,” Orbán added. “Everybody was surprised at Trump’s win,” Orban said, but he added that he had been “as certain as two and two make four”. He said people both in Europe and in the US were fed up with war, migration, and “this gender thing” and the Democrat administration was “pro-war, pro-migrant, and pro-gender”.
Orbán seeks a great agreement with the USA
Orbán said he was seeking to strike “a great agreement” between Hungary and the US.
Hungary and the US will need to sign an agreement to prevent double taxation, as the incumbent administration “has failed to renew the one that expired”, Orbán said, adding that he was seeking agreement with Trump “on some major economic matters”. “I think we will have to opportunity to do so,” he said.
Referring to the recent EU summit in Budapest, Orbán said participants had realised that “Europe cannot go on doing what it has done so far” and that it needed change. European leaders “so far giving Ukraine everything will now switch to the opposite”, he said.
“I wouldn’t want to see Europe being torn apart into opposing camps,” the prime minister said, adding that his goal was to “shift from a pro-war position to a pro-peace approach together”.
Competitiveness a key
On another subject, Orbán said “Europe would be on the losing side as long as it pays four times for gas and three times for electricity as its American competitor.” Within half a year, decisions resulting in a reduction in European energy prices must be made, he said. Speaking about an agreement adopted at an informal meeting of EU heads of state and government in Budapest on Friday, the PM said in Hungary households receive the cheapest gas and electricity in all of Europe, so this agreement will primarily be good for entrepreneurs, who pay very high prices in the same way as European entrepreneurs.
This is largely down to politicians, because the formulas used to set energy prices in Europe have been set up badly, he added.
Orbán pointed to an anti-bureaucratic revolution as a second step in the series of measures. He said that within half a year, the number of rules that clearly hinder free competition and the operation of companies must be radically reduced. He noted a new rule that no new legislation can be created that does not have a competitiveness test.
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Message to Orban and his cronies: Instead of telling us what you are going to do why don’t you actually accomplish something and then come back and tell us what you have achieved? We are still waiting for promised economic growth and deficit reduction, huge wage gains for Hungarians and manna from Heaven for all while everyone is still struggling to put food on the table after you have been in power for 14 years.
Just read the headline. hahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahaha haha!
Let´s flag some Politician gaslighting: The old 1979 Treaty (which was terminated by the US) did not have a limitation on benefits (LOB) treaty shopping clause, which by itself would be a reason to terminate. An LOB clause prevents multinational corporations from strategically directing business to a jurisdiction with the intention to take advantage of lower withholding tax rates provided by a tax treaty (i.e. prone to abuse – call it “tax planning” if you will).
The termination of the 1979 treaty actually came about after our Politicians tried to prevent the 15 percent Global Minimum Tax scheme for multinational corporations from moving forward… As one of eight out of 140 OECD Member countries (please remember – Hungary always knows best!). By then, the US Treasury had enough and pulled the emergency brake, before more damage (tax revenues lost) was done..
The “new” Treaty, negotiated in 2010, which included an LOB provision, was never ratified due to the efforts of Senator Rand Paul, a staunch Kentucky Republican. So blaming the current US Administration obviously misses the mark – it was the GOP!