Hungary's Orbán heralds new action plan, wants inflation "well below" 10% by end-2023

About the Russia-Ukraine war and George Soros

The reporters sitting opposite the PM in the public radio's studio are not famed for their relentless and armour-piercing questioning methods to say the least. Orbán does not need to sweat under the weight of ferocious inquiries. And he has a particularly easy job to feed the public his own narrative when the question itself states something untrue that happens to underpin the PM's views.

The fundamental standpoint of Orbán is that the West wants the war to continue, while Hungary wants peace. This was the narrative that he ingeniously switched to in the run-up to the parliamentary election in the spring of 2022, only that time his Fidesz party was portrayed at the only way to stay out of the horrors of war, while the left was smeared as the certain path to destruction and death.

The pro-war vs. anti-war stances have been brought up again during today's interview, and in this context the reporter mentioned George Soros, Orbán's bogeyman, and cited a recent opinion piece of his. "Soros envisions a glorious victory of Ukraine, the retaking of Crimea, and practically the continuation and the expansion of the war," the reporter notes.

In fact, Soros talks about a successful counterattack by Ukraine.

"I believe the counterattack will be successful. The target will be the Crimean Peninsula, the home base of the Russian Navy. By destroying the already damaged land bridge with Russia, Ukraine could turn a strategic asset into a strategic liability, because Crimea has no water. With the land bridge destroyed, Crimea will depend on Ukraine for water," he writes on Project Syndicate.

He adds that "the end of the war in Ukraine will come as a positive shock for the world", and that "a Russian defeat in Ukraine, and a lessening of Sino-American tensions, may create room for world leaders to focus on fighting climate change, which is threatening to destroy our civilization." 

There are always speculators if there's a war. And George Soros is a speculator, a war speculator at that, who hopes to profit at great human cost,

said Orbán. "I believe we all know how this should be labelled," he added.

"Those in favour of peace will prove to be right. I think Hungary stands on the right side," said Orbán, adding that Hungary not only had made the right call when it considered its own interests, but

we were also morally right when we took a position in favour of peace.

"I am certain that in the end, possibly within months, those in favour of peace will have proven to be right against the majority in favour of war, and their views will become common, or at least the majority, in the Western world," said Orbán.

The PM stressed that this conflict should be solved via diplomatic ways rather than on the battlefield. It is a botched strategy to provide arms to Ukraine so that they can beat the Russians, he added.

He called the actions against Donald Trump worrying, because Orbán believes that the former U.S. President is capable of brokering a peace. "The Soros empire is attacking Trump, doing everything it can to prevent the U.S. from electing a pro-peace politician," he said.

Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents. The charges present the possibility of several years in prison if Trump is convicted.

Price freezes, inflation and savings

Orbán again blamed the sanctions the EU imposed on Russia

"We all knew that if there was a war and if there were sanctions on Russian energy, as there were, it would send the price of energy, electricity and gas, skyrocketing across Europe. And since Hungary imports a large part of its energy needs, and this is also true for households and businesses, we will be the first victims of this," said Orbán. Perhaps no one in Europe imports a greater proportion of its energy consumption than Hungary, he added.

This is why Hungary's inflation has been higher than elsewhere, but stressed the government's commitment to hammer it down to single-digit territory.

We will bring inflation down [...], which is why we have introduced a number of anti-inflationary measures. Some still has to be maintained, some can be phased out, new measures have to be taken. [...] By the end of the year, inflation cannot be above 10%, and in fact, it has to be substantially below 10%.

I am not saying it is easy, but it is necessary to submit the budget [bill] now. It is not easy to come up with figures for five or six months later.

But there are also issues that demanded immediate action: in times of war, it makes a difference where people keep their savings.

To help the country in times of war, you need to keep your savings at the Treasury or in treasury bills.

We have put in place measures to reallocate funds into the Treasury from bank savings, to tax savings outside the Treasury and to offer good interest rates.

This is temporary while the war lasts, when the war is over, we will phase this out.

Raising the excise tax on fuel

It turned out from next year's tax changes that the government will raise the excise tax on motor fuels in 2024. The official explanation is that Hungary merely complies with EU rules, and Orbán stressed this today too.

He said Hungary needs this excise tax hike like a kick in the teeth, but we have no choice because this is what Brussels dictates.

The grace period is over, there is nothing we can do, we are forced to comply with Brussels' instructions.

The situation is not that simple, though. Raising the excise tax on fuel is indeed a must, but the cabinet got carried away and decided on a much greater increase than necessary. See the links below for a more detailed explanation and analysis.

New economic protection action plan in the making

Next week Gergely Gulyás [the PM's chief of staff] will announce the new economic protection action plan at a press conference next week, said Orbán. These measures are to be taken to counterbalance the wrong decisions made by Brussels, he added.

Migrant quotas, Germans and railway wagons, and Soros

The European Commission has proposed making EU member states accept the redistribution of migrants. Under the proposed system, a minimum number of redistribution will be established annually for member states and the figure has been initially set at 30,000.

Member states are to be given a choice between welcoming relocated migrants and refugees or paying a certain sum per migrant if they refuse to accept them.

Politico said earlier this month that negotiators are haggling over a per-migrant fee — somewhere between €10,000 and €22,000, according to numerous people involved — to charge a country if it declines to take in asylum seekers. 

Taking in migrants/refugees on a mandatory basis is loathed in countries such as Poland and Hungary, which have always opposed any set quotas for accepting migrants.

Orbán said that Hungary will not accept to pay a compensation for unwanted migrants, adding that Budapest and Warsaw had voted against the proposal. He noted that Slovakia, Bulgaria, Malta, and (perhaps) Lithuania said a "soft no".

He said that instead of redistributing migrants, Europe should focus on protecting its outside borders.

Addressing the practical side of the process, Orbán pointed out that Brussels retains the right to decide how many migrants are relocated to which member state. It is hard to picture this whole thing, he said.

There are these migrants in Germany, for instance. And they don't want to come here, of course. And I'm doing everything so that they wouldn't. But they don't, thinking they might get more money in Germany. So they round them up. Will they put them in railroad cars, haul them here, and unload them? And then we're supposed to take care of them here?

Orbán said there's a connection between this and George Soros handing over his USD 25 billion empire to his son Alex, who said he is "more political" than his father.

I think it is the Soros empire that sprang into a counter offensive here. Or I could say the Soros Empire has stricken back.

"This migrant quota was forced down the throats of the majority of Europeans in a coup-like, very quick decision," he went on. Orbán added that "we have no intention of implementing this, and I am looking for a way, together with other countries, so that we do not have to implement this rule."

Cover photo: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák