election

Election 2018 – Jobbik presents its EU package

In his press conference, Jobbik’s Candidate for Prime Minister Gábor Vona presented the party’s Europe package. The politician presented a programme comprising six elements. As the first step, he indicated changing Hungary’s attitude towards the EU: while left-wing governments adopted a subservient policy, Fidesz decided to quarrel permanently. In contrast, Jobbik stands for constructive debates and the representation of Hungary’s interests, he said.

In order to do so, the Jobbik-led government would appoint a Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU affairs to work on these relations 24/7.

Mr Vona noted that a European consultation had been launched recently and it could determine the future of the EU for decades to come. Viktor Orbán has already declined participating in this process. However, Mr Vona stated, if Jobbik gets into government, then Hungary will join this consultation and struggle for a strong and fair Europe which is built on a multitude of nations, i.e., it is not based on the United States of Europe concept.

The issue of the wage union is also important: launched by Eastern Central European countries, this initiative aims to help these member states benefit from the EU’s economic growth and to allow citizens to get out of their wage slave status.

Mr Vona emphasized that Hungarian wages were just one quarter of German wages at the moment, even though eastern citizens had to pay just as much or even more for commodities.

If Jobbik gets into government, it will immediately inform Brussels about its position on migration: the border fence will stay and a border guard service will be set up; also, Jobbik rejects both the global migrant allocation quota suggested by Orbán and the mandatory quota of Brussels.

The sixth unit of the package refers to supporting the self-governance and autonomy efforts of Hungarian communities living in the neighbouring countries. In Mr Vona’s view, Fidesz tends to stand for these efforts in closed meetings but when it comes to international forums, Fidesz has never been brave enough to voice its opinion on this matter. Jobbik would immediately put this issue on the EU’s agenda, especially because the necessary statements of support have already been submitted for the European Citizens’ Initiative called Minority Safepack.

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April 7, 2018

Election 2018 – LMP: If Orbán remains in power, Europe ‘will bid farewell to Hungary’

Hungary’s economy has become increasingly vulnerable and fragile, yet the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his government are stealing EU funds, Bernadett Szél, the opposition LMP party’s prime ministerial candidate, said on Friday.

Meanwhile, economist Péter Róna, allied to LMP, insisted that if Orbán were to remain in power, Europe would “bid farewell to Hungary”.

Szél said Orbán’s “biggest crime” had been to misuse EU funds. “These will soon run out,” she said.

She insisted that Orbán was already trying to replace the EU money by doing deals which bring in investment funds such as those that are financing the project to expand the Paks nuclear power plant.

The country’s economy cannot be based solely on foreign capital, Szél said, arguing that domestic small and medium-sized firms must be strengthened by redeploying EU funds and increasing tax on large corporations to support them.

Róna insisted the Hungarian economy was unsustainable without EU funds. He said economic growth would have been between 0 and 0.5 percent in the past eight years without the funds and remittances from Hungarian employees working abroad.

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April 7, 2018

Election 2018 – LMP candidate Szél pledges decent wages, support for families

Bernadett Szél, PM candidate of opposition LMP, has pledged decent wages, solving problems in the education system, social housing and higher support for families with a single child, if her party wins power in the upcoming election.

Speaking at LMP’s campaign closing rally in Budapest on Friday, Szél said an LMP government would “reduce the Russian influence, put an end to the hate-mongering campaign, and would not question anybody’s Hungarian identity”.

Szél said she would work to make Hungary “a country where young people return rather than escape from”.

Under LMP’s government “criminals stealing public assets” could not become politicians.

Szél said the election campaign was no longer democratic, but insisted that “most people can see through the government and want a change”.

She said Hungary had all preconditions in place to “become the winner of the next century”. “People think that their work is worth a decent salary and that they should not work in modern slavery,” she said.

Concerning family support, Szél said “it should not matter how many children or how many parents there are in a family”. She insisted that assistance should be granted not only when the parents have three children but when the first is born, and pledged doubling subsidies for single-child families.

Referring to housing, Szél said her government would embark on “the largest infrastructure programme of the past 30 years” involving the modernisation of homes and building community owned accommodation, which would also boost employment.

“Politics must get out of education” while the government should invest in the sector, Szél said and pledged doubling education spending. She argued that all over the world

“countries which have invested a lot of money in education have become winners”.

On the subject of energy, Szél criticised the government-initiated upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant, and said that while developed countries use more and more renewable energies, Hungary uses “hazardous technologies of the 1970s”. She said she had looked into the agreements around the Paks project and insisted that “they can and they must be terminated”.

Concluding her speech, Szél encouraged voters to visit the polls on Sunday, and said that “the country can be put on new foundations with a strong LMP.”

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April 7, 2018

Election 2018 – Socialist-Párbeszéd candidate Karácsony: Election ‘brings back spirit of 1989’

karácsony gergely udo bullmann socialist

Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, on Friday compared Hungary’s current election campaign to the period of Hungary’s transition to democracy in 1989.

“This election brings back the spirit of 1989,” Karácsony said after talks with Udo Bullmann, group leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. He argued that Hungary back then, too, was “in search of a new future after having torn down an autocracy”.

Just like after 1989, Hungary once again faces the task of building “a shared homeland” in which Europeanness “is not just a lofty idea but an everyday reality”,

Karácsony said. He vowed that as prime minister, his first act would be to restore the Hungarian government’s honour in Europe.

Bullmann talked about, among other things, European Union funds, saying that they served to better the living conditions of the Hungarian people. He said EU funds must not be used for self-enrichment.

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April 7, 2018

Election 2018 – Origo: Soros-funded activist group trying to ‘hack’ campaign with ads

Commercial news portal Origo on Friday carried an article detailing how an online network of activists allegedly funded by US billionaire George Soros was attempting to “hack” Hungary’s general election by sidestepping campaign rules.

According to the pro-government portal, the group named Avaaz “is putting out a huge amount of paid internet ads for Soros’s opposition candidates”. Origo says “there is a suspicion that [the network] is trying to circumvent Hungary’s election rules by running political ads from outside Hungary.”

The article says Avaaz has interfered in several foreign elections, supporting “the pro-migration candidates” in all of them.

According to Origo, the network runs a new ad on Facebook and its Messenger app about ousting and uniting against ruling Fidesz every 20 minutes.

Avaaz has reportedly been active in the campaign since March.

Origo said Soros had helped set up Avaaz by donating 150,000 US dollars to it through his Open Society Foundations in 2006. In 2009, the network received another 300,000 dollars from “another Soros organisation”.

The article said the Avaaz “click movement” is present in 194 countries and is believed to have some 46 million members.

April 6, 2018

Election 2018 – DK, LMP make tactical withdrawals

The opposition Democratic Coalition and LMP parties have decided to withdraw individual constituency candidates in favour of the other party, DK spokesman said on Friday.

Zsolt Gréczy told a press conference that LMP’s Csaba Kiss would step out of the race in favour of DK’s Sándor Rónai in Dunakeszi’s 5th constituency in Pest county. In return, DK’s István Krauze will compete thanks to LMP’s Ilona Matkovich withdrawal in Vác.

Both candidates have a chance of beating the ruling Fidesz party, he said, adding that talks were ongoing to make further tactical withdrawals with a view to unseating the government.

Meanwhile, Gréczy accused the government of concocting potential election fraud by opening ten temporary crossings at the Hungarian-Romanian border on election day.

“This is yet another sign of Fidesz’s attempt to commit large-scale electoral fraud” by exploiting the voting rights of Hungarians beyond the borders, he said, adding that Hungarian citizens living in Romania fictitiously declaring Hungarian addresses could double their vote by sending a letter and by voting in person.

DK will turn to the election observers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with a request they investigate each case of suspected fraud, the spokesman said.

April 6, 2018

Election 2018 – Fidesz group leader: Fidesz-KDNP will not form coalition with any opposition party

The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance would refuse to enter into a governing coalition with any of the current opposition parties after the April 8 general election, Fidesz group leader Gergely Gulyás said in an interview with daily Magyar Idők published on Friday.

“It is worth making clear that not only do none of the other parties want to enter a coalition with us but Fidesz-KDNP would also not want to govern with any of the opposition parties. If voters decide that we should not continue in government then either a Vona-Gyurcsány-Szél-Karácsony government would be formed — which is as unlikely as it would be tragic for the country — or uncertainty, chaos and instability would follow,” Gulyas told the paper.

None of the opposition party leaders or prime ministerial candidates would be fit to govern Hungary, he said.

“It is not that they would govern the country with a different ideology and policies but none of them has the professional, political and intellectual background that would make one assume that they are able to govern the country”, Gulyás said.

“It has been our experience for several years that

[the opposition’s] political and professional background comes from organisations that make their living from US billionaire George Soros,” he said.

“Currently they have a decisive influence on opposition politics. An interesting question is why the opposition is unable to set up and develop its own professional background and why they need to rely on Soros almost always,” Gulyás said.

Commenting on migration, the Fidesz politician said it would be irreversible, and this is why migration was the key issue. Once somebody accepts the migration quota, the guarantee of effective border protection would be ripped up once and for all and the gates to migrants would open up, he added.

Even if the left-liberal side and radical nationalist Jobbik, which has “turned completely opportunistic, talking about accepting migrant quotas in the international press”, think of rejecting the quotas, the slightest pressure from the European Union will make them give up their position,” he said.

Commenting on the difference between the ruling parties’ approach and the opposition’s approach to the idea of the nation, he said the Hungarian government represented a traditional Christian Democratic style of politics which even some of the right-wing conservative European parties had given up. “We think in terms of Europe of the nations. There is no alternative to institutionalised cooperation in Europe and it is therefore good that we joined the EU. At the same time, the strength of the continent lies in diversity,” he said.

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April 6, 2018

Election 2018 – Gyurcsány: If left wins, coalition talks must start on April 9

, Ferenc Gyurcsány said.

If the left-wing parties are able to secure a majority on their own and start coalition talks on Monday, the talks should be headed by the party that wins the most parliamentary seats from the votes cast for national lists, Gyurcsány told a news conference. At those talks, the parties should agree on the prime minister as well as the government’s programme and composition, he said.

But if the leftist parties set up a technocratic government together with Jobbik, they should choose a prime minister who is unaffiliated with any of the parties,

Gyurcsány said. That government would be supported by the opposition parties from the outside, he added.

This temporary cabinet would be responsible for laying the groundwork for a new election to be held in 2019, the former PM said. Its tasks would also include “uncovering Fidesz’s corruption cases”, freezing the “unfairly acquired wealth” of Fidesz politicians and joining European Public Prosecutor’s Office, he said. The government would also be responsible for restoring “fair political competition” and media freedom and drafting a fair campaign finance law. Further, it would be tasked with fixing health care, education and the pension system as well as raising wages and restoring the social safety net, Gyurcsány added.

April 6, 2018

Election 2018 – Fidesz likely to retain parliament majority with 112-123 seats

The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance is likely to win Sunday’s general election with 43 percent of the vote, giving it between 112 and 123 out of 199 seats in parliament, according to a fresh pre-election forecast by the Nézőpont Institute.

In Nézőpont’s forecast, Jobbik is seen coming in second with 22 percent of the vote, followed by the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance with 11 percent and the Democratic Coalition (DK) and LMP with 8 percent each. The opposition Momentum Movement, the satirical Two-Tailed Dog party and opposition Együtt are seen garnering 3 percent, 2 percent and 1 percent of the vote, respectively, all below the 5 percent parliamentary threshold.

Nézőpont projected a turnout of 65 percent.

Though the Fidesz-ChristDem alliance is unlikely to win a two-thirds majority, it is expected to retain a stable majority.

Nézőpont’s model forecasts between 36 and 42 parliamentary seats for Jobbik, 19-20 for the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, 11-13 for DK and 6-8 for LMP. It also sees three further candidates supported by the left-wing parties winning seats. The German national minority is also expected to send one representative to parliament.

Of its total number of seats, Fidesz-KDNP is expected to win between 74 and 85 mandates in individual constituencies. Jobbik is seen winning 7-13 electoral districts, while the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance is projected to win 8-10. DK is seen winning 3-5 districts and LMP no more than 1 district. A maximum of three more candidates supported by the leftist parties are forecast to win their individual constituencies.

Fidesz-KDNP is projected to win 38 seats from the votes cast for national lists, followed by Jobbik with 29, Socialists-Párbeszéd with 10-11, DK with 8 and LMP with 6-7 seats.

In its calculation of seats won from national lists, Nézőpont took into consideration phone and online polling data, election history, party preferences by undeclared voters and the campaign’s ability to mobilise voters.

The calculation of seats won in individual constituencies took into account the results of the 2014 electoral district races, the projected turnout, the forecast of votes cast for national party and minority lists, and the projected number of mailed votes.

April 6, 2018

Gábor Vona: Migration issue tops Jobbik’s action plan

Gábor Vona held a press conference in Gyöngyös, talking about the elections in general first. He said this vote was not just about four years; it would determine Hungary’s fate for at least two generations to come. Contrary to the government’s propaganda, the real question is not if we become a country of immigrants, but if we become a country of emigrants.

Mr Vona added that PM Orbán wanted to take revenge while he would take the initiative to buy healthcare equipment, and Mr Orbán wanted to make a list of his political opponents while Jobbik would make a list of the problems and then solve them. He emphasized that the outcome of the election would depend on the voter turnout, so everybody has to cast their ballots and take five more people with them, because “if you stay home, you vote for Orbán”.

Jobbik’s Candidate for Prime Minister holds a press conference each day before the election to present the five packages that make up Jobbik’s action plan.

The first package

– Anti-immigration action plan
– Keep the fence on the southern border
– Set up independent border guard service, permanent protection of the border with manpower
– Adopt an amendment of the Constitution which was turned down by Fidesz several times
– Reject any migrant allocation quota
– Review residency bond business, hold culprits to account
– Stop anti-migration propaganda, dissolve Antal Rogán’s Ministry and allocate its budget to public education

featured image: Balázs Béli

April 5, 2018

Election 2018 – Orbán: Hungary needs united govt to face challenges

Hungary needs a united and competent government to halt immigration, which would irrevocably alter the country’s character, Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, said, adding that the only force able to form such a government after Sunday’s election would be the incumbent Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance.

In an interview published in business weekly Figyelő on Thursday, Orbán accused the global media, the European Union and “influential business interest groups” of attempting to help a weak coalition government come to power after the April 8 general election, one that Brussels can fully control.

In a case like that, US billionaire George “Soros’s people” would fill government posts as it happened in other countries, he said, referring to leaked recordings on Soros.

They would occupy Hungary’s energy sector and banking system, and Hungarians would pay the price, Orbán said. The prime minister added that “Soros’s candidates” could only be thwarted by the Fidesz-ChristDems candidates as “Soros’s calculations show that all the others are already in his pocket.”

Orbán pledged to launch an ambitious programme to boost Hungary’s competitiveness in January 2019.

“I am thinking in terms of a Hungarian model based on competitiveness, full employment, as well as sound demographic and identity policies,” he said. Orbán said his government would retain Hungary’s “well-functioning and proportionate tax system” that promotes performance and a fair sharing of burdens.

Concerning the opposition parties, Orbán said Jobbik was “obviously attempting to bypass Fidesz and manoeuvre itself into the left wing”. This effort, however, sometimes results in “ridiculous” situations that “discredit” Jobbik politicians. “Those who had set fire to EU flags a few years ago have by now become pro-Brussels politicians. It’s all about money and power for them,” he said.

Orbán said that if the left wing came to power in any form, public utility fees and taxes would go up, hurting particularly Hungarian businesses, and unemployment would increase again. He warned that the “seemingly stumbling” opposition parties should not be underestimated, arguing that “their strength lies in foreign infusion rather than their own performance.” “They are fighting as mercenaries of their foreign masters, which is a serious source of danger,” he said.

As regards the issue of migration, Orbán said Hungarians had understood where it would take the country if it “yielded to” a pro-migration policy.

“An anti-migrant majority has come to exist not only in Hungary but across Europe. The question now is how this massive majority will develop into a political majority,” Orbán said.

The prime minister called 2018 a crucial year in which it would turn out whether “global powers, assisted by bureaucrats sitting in Brussels, manage to force pro-immigrant governments onto countries that have so far rejected migration”.

Orbán said the European Council would be the scene of a “key battle” in June when Brussels will once again try to push through its automatic migrant resettlement scheme, under which Hungary would be obliged to accept in a first step 10,000 people by the end of this year.

If Hungary is not represented by an “anti-immigration prime minister” in that debate, it “will ultimately fall and be taken away from the Hungarian people”, he said.

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April 5, 2018

Election 2018 – Czeglédy withdraws candidacy in favour of Socialist-Párbeszéd candidate

Csaba Czeglédy, a left-wing politician and fixer who is in pre-trial detention for the suspected misappropriation of public funds, has withdrawn his candidacy in Szombathely for a parliamentary seat in favour of the candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance.

Czeglédy was approved as an independent MP candidate in March and became eligible for immunity. However, his immunity was later lifted by the National Election Committee (NVB), and a Szeged court ordered that he be placed back into pre-trial detention.

He appealed to the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, over that ruling, but his appeal was rejected. Czeglédy also submitted a complaint to the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the NVB’s decision to strip him of his immunity was in line with the constitution.

Czeglédy’s decision to withdraw his candidacy was announced on Wednesday at a press conference by György Ipkovich, the former Socialist mayor of Szombathely.

Czeglédy has called on his supporters to vote for Socialist-Párbeszéd candidate András Nemény, who is also backed by the Democratic Coalition and the Hungarian Liberal Party.

“It is a fact that by stomping on the principle of the rule of law, [ruling] Fidesz prevented me from participating in the campaign in a meaningful way, depriving the local residents of the opportunity to choose,” Czeglédy wrote in a letter published by, among others, news portal Nyugat.hu. “It is an unprecedented crime since Hungary’s democratic transition . for a ruling party to use its power to debase the voting rights of an opposition candidate and their supporters.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Szeged district court decided to extend Czeglédy’s pre-trial detention by three months. Czeglédy’s attorney has appealed the decision.

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April 5, 2018

Election 2018 – Parliament security committee head: Opposition using national security committee sessions for campaign purposes

The opposition parties in parliament are “reducing” meetings of the national security committee to “campaign sessions”, the committee’s deputy head for ruling Fidesz said on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference, Szilárd Németh accused opposition delegates to the committee of bringing forward issues and topics that are “obviously lies, bluffs and fake news that come up in the press and don’t belong in the national security committee’s sessions”.

The work of the committee is regulated by law, he noted, adding that it has completed all its tasks for the current term.

Németh said he believed there were still issues that would be worth discussing in the committee. He mentioned as an example recently leaked recordings “that clearly prove what civil groups funded by [US financier George] Soros are doing in the country” or “how many more crime-affiliated organisations Jobbik leader Gábor Vona wants to be in contact with”.

“But this is not easy as long as Soros’s people are sitting on the committee,” Németh said.

He called on voters to elect a parliament on April 8 whose national security committee would not include “Soros’s people”.

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March 29, 2018

Election 2018 – Opposition parties in debate about cooperation with Jobbik

Representatives of five opposition parties agreed on the need for a regime change, but had a sharp debate whether or not they should cooperate with Jobbik ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election, at a conference on Thursday.

Ágnes Kunhalmi, head of the Socialist Party’s Budapest chapter, said it was possible to achieve “full cooperation” of the leftist opposition parties for the April 8 ballot.

Jobbik is “not needed” for that, primarily because of its “ideological and moral grounds” but also because that party itself ruled out any cooperation, Kunhalmi told the conference co-organised by the Republikon Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. She cited polls showing that half of Jobbik’s voters would vote for ruling Fidesz in constituencies where their party was not running.

Viktor Szigetvári, the PM candidate of Együtt, said

the opposition would not need cooperation with Jobbik to win in several constituencies, but added that the opposition still needs “to make a gesture”.

Antal Csárdi, a Budapest assembly lawmaker of LMP, said that although Jobbik stands “ideologically rather far”, there is no other option but considering that party for the sole purpose of gaining a majority in parliament.

“The election maths cannot be done without Jobbik,” Csárdi said.

Péter Niedermüller, a MEP of the Democratic Coalition (DK), responded saying that it would be “insane” to have a country with Jobbik leader Gábor Vona serving as prime minister.

Katalin Cseh, a board member of Momentum, said that in the majority of constituencies “a change can only be brought about with Jobbik’s involvement”.

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March 22, 2018

Election 2018 – Socialist-Párbeszéd PM candidate: No alternative to basic income

It is inevitable that a basic income will have to be introduced in Hungary and throughout Europe, opposition Socialists-Párbeszéd prime ministerial candidate Gergely Karácsony said on Thursday.

Within ten or twenty years, a basic income will become a reality almost everywhere in Europe, Karácsony told the conference Basic income: preparing for the politics of the future.

A basic income may provide the best way to restore “painfully absent” social cohesion, but before being introduced, it should be trialled and its effects on labour market activity examined, Karácsony said.

He added that a Socialist-led government would first increase family benefits and the basic pension so as to guarantee “the level of security provided by a basic income” to people above working age and a guaranteed minimum wage benefit to people of working age.

Ruling Fidesz responded that Karácsony and the alliance he leads wanted to give free money to migrants paid for by “hardworking Hungarians”. In a statement referring to US financier George Soros, Fidesz said a government of “Soros’s people” would allow migrants to settle in Hungary while giving them “a regular income paid for by hardworking Hungarians” without requiring them to work.

March 22, 2018

Election 2018 – Ethnic Hungarian leaders: Vote beyond border mobilised

The number of ethnic Hungarians likely to vote in Hungary’s April 8 general election is growing, the leaders of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ) and the Hungarian People’s Party of Transylvania (PPMT) said in Szeged, in southern Hungary, on Thursday.

István Pásztor of VMSZ told a press conference that his party has mobilised Hungarian citizens living in Vojvodina in recent months and at least 60,000 are now registered to vote.

He encouraged Vojvodina Hungarians to cast their votes for the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats, VMSZ’s “strategic partner”.

Vojvodina Hungarians are the greatest beneficiaries of the consolidation of Hungarian-Serbian relations, and Fidesz guarantees the continuation of that process, he said.

Political stability in Hungary is in the interest of all Hungarian citizens, he said. An opposition win could destabilise Hungarian politics, affecting Hungarians beyond the borders, he added.

Tibor Toró of PPMT said the number of ethnic Hungarians registered to vote from beyond the borders was expected to be twice as high as four years ago. This means their vote will have greater weight and could decide the outcome of up to three seats as opposed to a single one in the 2014 election, he said.

Toró scoffed at those politicians who argue against voting rights for ethnic Hungarians, noting that parliament makes policy decisions regarding communities beyond the borders that influence their everyday lives, he added.

Fidesz lawmaker László B Nagy noted that the deadline for registering to vote by mail will expire on March 24 and 372,000 voters have been registered so far out of the 451,000 applications submitted.

March 22, 2018

Election 2018 – PM candidate Karácsony: Socialist-Párbeszéd wants to restore ‘peace’

Should the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance be elected into power on April 8, it will seek to “bring back peace” to Hungary and restore the “damage caused by [ruling] Fidesz in souls,” the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate, Gergely Karácsony, said in Salgótarján, in northern Hungary, late on Wednesday.

The ruling parties’ “governance based on finding enemies” has destroyed peace in the country, Karácsony insisted. “If we can make it clear that politics is not synonymous with hatemongering and plunder, if we can lift deprived regions and people and convince people that governance is a service, we might … end the civil war raging in the country…,” Karácsony told a forum of about 400 people.

Karácsony said he intended to file a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for “campaigning in a kindergarten”. Not only is this illegal, it is also “particularly harmful because the government’s education policy strips our children of their future.”

He also called on his audience to consider “what comes after the election”, and warned that “ballots cast for Jobbik might not be in good hands.” Fidesz has hijacked several ideas from Jobbik, such as “harassing private schools”, or “nationalising the schoolbook market or the private pension funds”, he warned.

Karácsony called on his audience to vote and campaign for voting among their acquaintances, “because then April 8 can become the holiday of Hungarian freedom.”

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March 22, 2018

Orbán: The demographic problem should be solved through family policy

According to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary has a government which thinks that the demographic problem afflicting the country should not be solved through immigration and with migrants, but should be solved through family policy.

Speaking at the foundation stone ceremony for a kindergarten in the village of Bakonysárkány in Komárom-Esztergom County, the Prime Minister said that Hungary has a government which stands by families, and which supports families in making the commitment to have and raise children. In order to achieve this, he said, the Government is employing every kind of measure, and shall continue to do so in the future.

He observed that nowadays in Hungary when people speak about the future it is generally in an anxious tone of voice. This is not so much to do with money, he said, but is much rather a question of whether there will be enough children in the country in the future.

Mr. Orbán said that a settlement which decides to build a kindergarten – as Bakonysárkány has done – is surely one in which there are people who have faith in the future.

The Prime Minister said that there will be a general election on 8 April, and there will be a national government in Hungary for as long as the current government is in office. He added that if by chance others enter office, they will represent something else – not the interest of the Hungarian people, and not the future of the Hungarian village – and then of course other decisions could threaten the Hungarian people. “On such a beautiful occasion as this, however, one should not think about such dire possibilities: one should only consider more attractive prospects”, he stated.

The Prime Minister expressed his trust that on 8 April and the subsequent period there will be a continuation of the cooperation which has been created between the national government and Hungary’s small settlements and villages.

He confirmed that after the election the Government will also launch the Modern Villages Programme, the aim of which is to develop those settlements in Hungary in which there are people who believe in their own future, and who will therefore create plans for it.

Katalin Novák, Minister of State for Family and Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Human Capacities, said that

external solutions to the demographic problem should not be sought: the Government believes in the young people of Hungary, because they are the ones who offer the solution.

At the foundation stone ceremony for the kindergarten, which is being built with funding of 200 million forints, the Minister of State said that Europe is battling with a demographic crisis, but in the village of Bakonysárkány its school and kindergarten require continual expansion. She said that it is an indicator for the future that the village is striving to make it possible for villagers to send their children to kindergarten and school locally.

She said that the fact that attendance at kindergarten is now compulsory from the age of three is a huge step forward. Mrs. Novák further noted that the career structure for teachers is now also applicable to kindergarten teachers, and so their pay is higher now than it was in 2010. There are now 1,200 more kindergarten teachers than there were in 2010, she observed. She said that the village kindergarten will be ready for use in 2020.

Judit Czunyi-Bertalan, Fidesz Member of Parliament and parliamentary candidate for Komárom-Esztergom County’s Electoral District 3, said that the rising number of children in the village is proof of the rationale and results of the determined and progressive family policy that the government has launched.

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March 22, 2018