Economy 13 January 2023, 9:29am

Hungary's Orbán says Erasmus fund freeze is "vendetta against Hungarian youth"

Portfolio

In his first interview with public radio MR1 in 2023, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday the freezing of funds in the European Union's student exchange programme Erasmus+ is a "vendetta" of Brussels against young Hungarians. He has completely disregarded the fact that the move was a response to politicians of Fidesz or businessmen closely tied to the ruling party being members, and often at the helm, of public interest trusts managing universities. This conflict of interest is considered a "serious risk for the EU budget" and was addressed by a prohibition on entering into new legal commitments with any said trust and any entity maintained by them. Well, you have to sell this fiasco of the government somehow.

Erasmus fund freeze is a retaliation by Brussels

As reported earlier by Portfolio, the rule of law case against Hungary has resulted in a ban on commitments of EU funds to higher education institutions managed by public interest asset management foundations. This also affects digitisation and research and development programmes in higher education planned with cohesion funds, Erasmus+ funds and Horizon Europe funds directly awarded in Brussels.

We will not allow students to be the victims of any decision by Brussels,

because it is in Hungary's national interest that young people study and go abroad, and bring their knowledge home.

What a thing to want to take revenge on young Hungarians in Brussels,

Orbán said. He added that if they could not reach an agreement with the European Commission on the matter, the Hungarian budget would pay for the programme next year.

They didn't ask what they claim to have asked. Or did they? Well, yes, but... it was concealed... and not very convincing... and it didn't seem important...

The Hungarian government acts as if the prohibition on future funding for public interest funds maintaining local universities has come out of the blue. In fact, the Commission stated in late November that it had problems with this form of management, and the European Council released its decision "on measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary" on 15 December 2022, listing the problems with the public interest trusts and also proposing a solution to protect the EU budget, which - as a first step - is more like a penalty, e.g. the freezing of funds.

Gergely Gulyás, the PM's chief of staff, told a press conference on Thursday that if the matter cannot be settled amicably, Hungary will take the Council decision to the European Court of Justice.

The European Commission claims that it has repeatedly asked the government not to have politicians on the boards of trustees managing higher education institutions. The cabinet claims that's a lie, they didn't ask for any, said Gulyás.

When asked by news portal 444.hu why, if this was the case, they did not complain in December when the allegedly false statements appeared in the Council decision, Gulyás replied that that they had hidden this part in the decision and that it did not seem so important until now.

444: You have not raised this publicly until now.
Gulyás: So far the Commission has not raised it publicly, so [...]
444: But there was a [document] in December and one even in November showing [...]
Gulyás: In the eighteenth line of a long resolution, of course.
444: Well, yes, but it was there.
Gulyás: Yes, but since no one asked, we dealt with the other ten, otherwise more important cases. Only after the Erasmus scholarship was included under this heading, which is an existing but debatable interpretation, it has become the leading news, and that's why we're talking about it at such length.

He also noted that the cabinet is willing to make the necessary legal changes but for that to happen

we need an unequivocal document from the Commission, signed by as senior a person as possible and with some kind of stamp, that reinforces credibility after our negative experience so far [showing] what they want.

"[...] the regulatory framework still does not prevent top-level officials, including senior political executives from the National Assembly and Hungary’s autonomous bodies, from sitting on boards of public interest asset management foundations, as repeatedly requested by the Commission," the 15 December Council decision reads.

"[...] top-level officials, including senior political executives from the National Assembly and Hungary’s autonomous bodies, have not been excluded from sitting on boards of public interest asset management foundations, as requested in the course of the exchanges with Hungary," the Commission's 30 November communication to the Council reads.

These make it quite clear what they think in Brussels about university boards of trustees, to which Viktor Orbán admits that they have delegated people with an ideological, "nationalist views" (including Finance Minister Mihály Varga, Justice Minister Judit Varga, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, and Regional Development Minister Tibor Navracsics).

"Logically, when we set up these foundations and appoint the trustees, we’ll invite people […] who own this nationalist approach. I wouldn’t be able to nominate with a clear conscience anyone that has an internationalist, globalist approach because they’d take the universities in that direction too,

Orbán told public radio MR1 on 30 April 2021.

These are not clear enough requirements for Orbán's government. It wants another, even more specific and very authentic paper - with a STAMP - and signed by an EU official with the highest rank possible, otherwise the request cannot really be taken seriously. It's too vague.

Sanctions policy

Orbán said it is time for "someone from Brussels to come along, someone brave enough, with big biceps and broad shoulders, and say that we have messed up", and that sanctions should be lifted, because then prices would immediately fall and inflation would at least halve. He thinks this would be just a political decision in Brussels, but he himself does not see such a broad-shouldered person, saying you would have to be German or French to be that person.

But there is some courage here and there, for example "here we are, me personally". He alone, however, sees himself as not enough to make a difference, he cannot change the decisions of the great powers on his own.

I can do only one thing, limit the damage, we cannot change the sanctions policy. The blundering in Brussels continues.

"The only, or at least the biggest, loser of the war is Europe," he added.

On the issue of compensation for overheads, he said that to finance it, "it has to be taken away from someone".

And it has to be taken away from where inflation and energy price rises have generated a profit. This is a temporary measure, and in Hungary it is understood and accepted.

We have entered an era of dangers

The year 2022 was a clear sign that something had changed in the world:

we had entered an age of danger.

We thought that the pandemic was not an epoch-making event, that it would be over in 1-1.5 years, but then came war, high inflation, and strong migratory pressure at our borders, the PM said.

We need to be clear about how we approach the threat: some people behave like hedgehogs, turning out their thorns, and in such cases we need to defend ourselves, but this is also a self-defeating strategy, because it is paralysing.

But we must respond actively to the crisis, let's not be complacent! Hungary has responded to all the threats, we are not going down! We will not freeze, we will build defence posts, we will respond.

Hungary has not simply passed on the cost of utilities to the people, but has set up an overheads protection fund and used it to finance the reduction in utility bills. This is one of the things the PM considers as active action.

LGBTQ people talking nonsense in schools

According to Orbán, Brussels' vision of the future is different from that of the Hungarians: they say let the migrants come, let us be colourful, but

we do not want to live with migrants at all, we are defending ourselves against this.

Then there's the LGBTQ issue, but "it makes the hairs on our backs stand up" when people from that group talk "nonsense" to children in schools, he said.

A homophobic and anti-LGBTQ referendum officially aimed at 'child protection' and held simultaneously with the parliamentary election on 3 April was invalidated as less than 50% of the votes were valid. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International argued that the 'child protection law' must be revoked.

“The result is clear: people don’t want to live in a country where their family members, friends, and colleagues are being targeted by the government. The homophobic and transphobic propaganda law must be revoked immediately,” Amnesty International and Háttér Társaság (Background Society) said then.

Yet, Orbán told international journalists on Wednesday that just because the referendum was invalid, the law will not be revoked because such a sweeping percentage of the votes (92%) supported the government's stance. (Results: valid votes=45.7%, invalid votes=21.2%, did not vote=33.1%)

The Commission has already taken Hungary to court over the so-called child protection act.

Orbán sad Brussels wanted a change of government in Hungary in 2022, but it didn't happen, and since then, "they are trying to force us to do what they think is right, regardless of the election results", including refugees or LGBTQ propaganda.

The Hungarian government, on the other hand, is not going to let up. So "we interpret everything in this context", including Erasmus.

They want to beat our children because they don't know what to do with the government,

he said.

Real wages to grow in 2022-2023

Hungary's financial reserves are at an all-time high, of course this is also because of the overheads protection fund, but it also shows that we are prepared for an era of risks, Orbán said.

He added that "it is not just that Hungary cannot be cornered, we can manage on our own", and now Brussels is facing the fact that the sun will rise and the rooster will crow here without them.

On maintaining jobs, he noted that this is the most important thing - if there is work, there is everything. In 2022, investment was at an all-time high, and in 2023, this record could be broken.

Through the Széchényi Card we have a corporate loan programme, we have a factory rescue programme, and the most important task for 2023 will be to protect jobs, he added.

Wages are not decided by the government, and that's fine. The minimum wage is agreed by employees and employers, it is decided by the economic actors, the government just announces it. We have entered the era of dangers in 2022, we have to see what will happen in 2023 and 2022 as a whole, said, Orbán, adding that

wages will increase in real terms over the two years as a whole.

We need to bring inflation down to single digits by the end of the year, it is possible, and there is a good chance that we will. It cannot happen that the economy will be smaller in 2023 than it was in 2022, so the economy has to grow, we expect growth of 1.5%.