Preliminary date of Pope Francis’s visit to Hungary set!

Asked about a future visit to Hungary by Pope Francis, Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, said on today’s government info that a preliminary date had been set and this would be announced by the Vatican.

Regarding V4 cooperation, Gulyás said all four members of the Visegrád Group, Hungary and Poland in particular, aimed to ensure that the bloc continued to operate effectively. He noted differences of opinion on the issue of Russia, but these, he added, were not as sharp as appearances or portrayals in the international press suggested.

“Of key importance are good relations with Poland,”

he said, adding that Katalin Novák, Hungary’s incoming president, will pay her first official foreign visit to Warsaw.

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Asked to comment on the opposition’s reaction to ruling Fidesz’s proposal to divide parliamentary positions based on a two-thirds to one-third formula, he said the

ruling side’s offer fairly reflected the election outcome

and it was now up to the six-party coalition to decide whether or not they wanted to participate in parliamentary business. He said recent left-wing proposals had tended to get entangled in their internal strife.

In connection with a range of planned amendments to the 2022 budget, Gulyás said

the government did not support any kind of austerity measure that may affect ordinary people.

At the same time, the deficit target of 4.9 percent remain unchanged. “The question is how long the war in Ukraine will last,” he said, noting that it was costing Hungary several hundred billion forints in additional spending each month. He said a deficit of below 3 percent would not be targeted before the 2024 budget.

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Source: MTI