Soros raking billions in extra profit, Hungarian opposition financed by the US, says Orbán
The war in Ukraine is dragging on, with no hope of a swift ending, Viktor Orbán said in an interview today morning. Meanwhile, large shareholders of energy companies, “starting with [financier] George Soros, are raking in billions in extra profits” thanks to sanctions-related energy price rises, he said.
Energy prices were driven by politically motivated decisions in Brussels rather than economic reasons, he said. Without the sanctions, energy prices would be the same as they were in April, at the time of the Hungarian general elections and the preceding campaign when the price of gas and oil was expected to stabilise around 100 dollars, “which would have been manageable” without altering the government’s price-cap scheme.
Before the election campaign in Hungary got underway, EU countries agreed “with the leadership of Germany and Hungary” at a summit in Versailles not to extend sanctions to energy, he said. Germany “switched sides” in June, and Brussels imposed sanctions on oil and it has tabled similar measures against gas imports, he said.
Hungary would be in a much worse situation had the government not fought for an exemption from the sanctions against Russia, Orbán said.
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Rather than worrying about energy prices, Hungary would have to contend with energy shortages, he said. At the same time, Hungary will have to adapt to market prices, which are “basically the same throughout Europe”, Orbán said. Hungary has enough natural gas reserves to cover demand for up to five weeks, “even if no gas arrives” in the country, he said.
Referring to the opposition: he said “they play to a different tune”, so it would be a mistake for the government to base its policy on cooperation with them. He said they were financed “from America” and were beholden to those people funding them.
On the subject of the abortion law, the prime minister said the government did not plan to change the law. “I strongly oppose any kind of changes to the abortion law,” he said, adding that he was in favour of “the current system”. Orbán said that currently there were more important issues to be dealt with such as sanctions, the war and skyrocketing energy prices.
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Regarding the European Union’s sanctions policy, Orbán said: “Most bad political decisions can be mended.” Unless the policy is changed, the “sanctions surcharge will be built into the economy and will stay in the long run, becoming a part of our lives in the coming five to ten years,” he said.
The prime minister said the government is protecting families and businesses through energy price caps, and households would pay on average HUF 181,000 (EUR 427.75) more each month without them. Hungary outperforms the rest of Europe when it comes to protecting households from energy price rises, providing support equal to 30 percent of the average salary, while in Germany this amounts to 20 percent, and for Austrians, it comes to 6 percent, he said.
For the time being, Hungary’s budget can afford this, and hopes are high that this support can be maintained until 2023, he said.
He mentioned the government’s caps on the price of firewood and coal as well as a 200 billion support scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, there is a programme to help out factories and one to protect jobs, he added.
Source: MTI