The 13th-month pension remains an important part of the Hungarian pension system, and the government is committed to increasing the purchasing power of pensions and protecting pensioners, head of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás said at a government press briefing on Thursday.
Gulyás said “one of the most important proposals” at Wednesday’s government meeting was on the situation of retirees. In the past 15 years, the average pension has grown to nearly 250,000 forints (EUR 615) from around 100,000 forints, he said. Gulyás said the 13th-month pension and was being constantly attacked “by the opposition in the hands of Brussels”. “The Tisza party’s experts are also calling for changes to it, and Brussels has obliged Hungary to get the OECD to prepare a study. The OECD suggested that the 13th-month pension be curbed and reformed,” he said.
The government will not comply with those requests, and the 13th-month pension will remain an important part of the Hungarian pensions system, Gulyás said, adding that the 13th-month pension will be transferred on Feb 12, costing the budget 550 billion forints this year. The government is also helping pensioners by extending its rural home renovation scheme to include them, he said, with pensioners able to access government funding for half of the costs of renovation, up to 6 million forints, and a low-interest loan for the rest of the costs, he said.
Regarding the rehabilitation of a brownfield area in Budapest’s 14th district, for which the government and the Budapest municipality have conflicting plans, Gulyás said the government acknowledges the pre-emption rights of Budapest Kozmuvek Nonprofit (BKM) over Rákosrendező, adding that the relevant government decree will be issued later on Thursday. BKM, a company owned by the Budapest municipality, has exercised its pre-emption rights over the brownfield area in Budapest’s 14th district, Gergely Gulyás said. The government has studied the declaration to clarify how the international agreement relates to the civil law agreement concerning the area, he said.
BKM has declared it will take on all duties that would have fallen on the investor-developer from the United Arab Emirates, Gulyás said. “In view of that, the government acknowledges the pre-emption rights.” The city’s administration and BKM will be mandated to pay for the area under the terms and conditions of the agreement and will be liable for the clean-up for 25 billion forints (EUR 61.5m), half the value of the sales price, he added.
Regarding the government’s 21-point economic action plan, Gulyás said that the first results were already visible. The recently introduced loan for employees has already received 9,000 applications, with the average amount requested being around 3.9 million forints, he said. Some 2,000 loans have already been paid, while 5,400 applications are being processed, he said. Rural home renovation subsidy requests have come to a total of 2 billion forints so far, he added.
Some 1,885 small and medium-sized enterprises have submitted applications for the government’s new 48 billion forint support scheme, Gulyás said, adding that the requests amounted to 137 billion. Another 100 billion forint scheme designed to support the investments and competitiveness of SMEs has received more than 1,800 registrations, he said.
Government spokeswoman Eszter Vitályos said, in line with the agreements signed last year, the raised minimum wages for workers and skilled employees are scheduled to be paid in the coming days. The raises affect some 1 million people, she added. According to the 3-year wage agreement, the minimum wages will increase by 40 percent in total, including a 9 percent raise to 290,000 forints this year, she said. Some 143,000 teachers are receiving wages increased by 21.2 percent on average this year, after a wage hike of 32.2 percent last year, she added.
State investments with a value of close to 100 billion forints have been completed in recent weeks, Vitályos said. These included kindergarten, school and creche constructions and renovations as well as transport and regional developments. She also highlighted the inauguration of the National Film Institute’s new studio complex in Fot.
Regarding the Rákosrendező brownfield site, Gulyás said that by exercising its pre-emption rights, the capital and the company owned by it had taken the place of the buyer, so the capital now enjoyed the rights arising from the contract but also bore related obligations.
This also means that the city must clean up the area, the minister said, adding that in the contract the Arab investor undertook to clean up the area for up to half of the purchase price, which is around 25 billion forints. Citing professional estimates, he said the area could be cleaned up for roughly this amount.
Commenting on what may be built at the site, he said the government would try to reach an agreement with the city if building regulations needed to be changed, and if this was not necessary, “then the city will do what it wants with its own property”. On the fact that another company also has a pre-emption right, Gulyás said this was only a theoretical possibility because a small company could not pay the purchase price.
He said the UAE side had been informed late on Wednesday of the situation arising from Budapest exercising its pre-emption right, so they would not find out from the press. Gulyás noted that it had been said repeatedly that the capital was the country’s richest municipality. Yet even though the city was close to bankruptcy, according to a State Audit Office report, apparently it could still afford to buy the land for 50 billion forints. He indicated that the government approved the payment of the purchase price as it represented a long-term liability.
Gulyás said Rákosrendező was Budapest’s largest completely neglected area. Gulyás wished the capital “good luck” in proving that the area was in the right place in their hands, but indicated that he was unsure whether what happened was good for Budapest or the country. Answering another question, he insisted that the government had not “let go” of the investment, but “this is how a constitutional state works”: someone had exercised their pre-emption rights, and “democracy has a price”.
The minister received a number of questions about the case of the Japanese woman who died in a house fire in the capital at the end of January, suspected of murder by her ex-husband. He was asked whether legislation might be needed in connection with the case, considering that the woman had previously asked for help from the police several times but was turned down.
Gulyás said he would wait for the result of the police investigation which should reveal whether a mistake had been made, adding that it was important for the police investigation to have a clear outcome so that people in similar situations could trust the Hungarian state. Domestic violence can be prevented if the party in need asks for help and receives it, but in many cases, police and the state have no chance to intervene because the act does not take place in a public area, and many domestic disputes escalate into violence, he said.
Asked about a “smear campaign” against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán financed by Ukraine, he said both ruling and opposition members of parliament’s national security committee had been informed about it. Gulyás said it was regrettable that EU-aspirant Ukraine treated an EU country in such a way, adding that such actions would have a negative impact on relations between the two countries.
When asked whether the Ukrainian secret service action could be related to the fact that “destabilisation processes” had started in Slovakia and Serbia, Gulyás said there were signs of political pressure from the NGO network bearing the hallmark of George Soros in both Slovakia and Serbia. He expressed hope that the democratically elected governments of both countries would get the situation under control as soon as possible.
Regarding possible the spillover of demonstrations in Slovakia and Serbia, Gulyás said that the political forces behind the Hungarian government were stable and the situation could not be compared with either Slovakia or Serbia.
In response to a suggestion that aid from Hungary to Kyiv may be suspended, Gulyás said many different types of aid were being sent, mostly to Transcarpathia, and the EU also provided financial help to Ukraine. The Hungarian government, he added, believed that peace was in Ukraine’s interest as against “forced sanctions policies”. In response to reports about planned EU tariffs on Ukrainian fertilisers, he said the lessons of the US presidential election had not yet reached Brussels, adding that anything that harmed Hungarian interests would be met with a veto or the threat of a veto until an exemption was agreed to.
Commenting on the establishment a special European Parliament committee on the protection of democracy, he said a democratic political culture had ceased to exist in the EP long ago. The fact that new members had not been picked for parliamentary posts from the third largest group, the Patriots, was ample evidence of this, he added.
Regarding migration, Gulyás said further changes were needed in Europe. The migration pact, supported in the EP by Hungary’s opposition Tisza Party, prescribed mandatory distribution, whereas the Hungarian ruling parties “believe that Hungary should not accept any migrants at all”, he added, “No matter how much they fine us, we must not surrender…” he said, adding that western countries that had embraced a migrant society “constantly face the threat of terrorism”.
In response to a question concerning whether the Hungarian government agreed with the US plan to take over Gaza, Gulyás said the Hungarian government was aware of its own diplomatic weight and did not wish to participate in the Gaza settlement. Meanwhile, Gulyás said the government must consider quitting all international organisations that the US, “the strongest democracy in the world”, exited.
Commenting on the latest industrial output data, he said the fundamentals of the Hungarian economy were strong and industrial output, which waned last year, depended on the state of foreign economies. Last year, he said, Hungary achieved growth of 0.5 percent because the drop in industrial output was counterbalanced by the increase in consumption, services and tourism. Industrial output is expected to increase this year, he said, adding that agriculture, too, was expected to see an uptick based on figures from the first couple of months. In addition, robust growth is expected in consumption, while records were being broken in tourism. Services were also doing well, he added.
In response to a question concerning journalist Zsolt Bayer’s proposal to draw up a list of judges who attend a Feb 22 demonstration organised by the National Judicial Council, he said it was accepted by the courts that if a demonstration could be reported, its participants may be included in the report. Branding this as a “list” was “tasteless”, he insisted. Any impression of a judicial lack of impartiality should be avoided, he said, adding that it would be hard for a judge attending a protest not to create such an impression.
Gulyás said the independence of judges was guaranteed in Hungary. The judicial system “should maintain its own independence and impartiality, and sort out its ranks internally,” he said. The government, he said, had nothing to do with judicial administration. The law determines consultation obligations, which the government fully complies with, he added.
Concerning a demonstration planned by the chamber of doctors for March, Gulyás said while the government was open to negotiations, “the chamber is taking a political rather than a professional role”. He said the government had increased salaries in health care in recent years and the sector’s financing was at “unprecedented” levels. “Even so, many areas call for an improvement,” he said.
Asked about racist remarks recently made by a Socialist municipal representative in Budapest’s 11th district, Gulyás called the remarks “unacceptable” and “incommensurate with a role in public life”, though he could not “morally identify with the practice introduced by” the opposition Tisza Party “to record private conversations and then publish the footage”.
Asked about intensifying droughts in eastern Hungary, the minister said the government had taken a number of measures in recent years to improve the water supply using the network of canals and backwaters there, but resolving related problems amid the sandy landmass would cost “several thousand billion forints”.
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