Main opposition party Fidesz will announce the details of a 100-page program entitled “Strong Hungary” (“Erős Magyarország“) at a conference in Budapest on Saturday, reports Gazdasági Rádió. At the conference, which will be held at the Gólyavár events hall of the ELTE University on Múzeum körút, faction leader Tibor Navracsics will present the document, and party chairman Viktor Orbán will give a speech entitled “Program creation and basic values.”
The program focuses on economic growth and social solidarity and is based on a document entitled “Our Future” (“Jövőnk“), accepted at the party’s May congress. The document does not describe specific measures, only sets the direction towards which Fidesz would move. The program supports tax and social contribution cuts but does not contain specific proposals. In “Our Future,” the party wrote that as Socialist economic policies have driven the country into debt, there is limited scope for tax cuts, but as a first step, changes to the tax system could be made that would result in economic growth. Then as a second step, tax burdens on businesses should be considerably lessened. The program also supports a national health insurance system with a single state insurer.
The Saturday conference is entitled “Strong Hungary – A European Program,” and is organized by the Foundation for a Civil Hungary and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. In addition to Navracsics and Orbán, Fidesz’s member of European Parliament and deputy fraction leader József Szájer, People’s Party Deputy Chairman Corien Wortmann-Kool and the ex-PM of Baden-Württemberg, Erwin Teufel, will also speak.
Wow – I bet Comrade Gyurcsány and his neocommunist kleptocracy are quaking in their jackboots. Whatever next – a new logo? How
about a slogan? Or even another futile referendum? Steady on
Viktor, you might upset them, and that would never do. They might
stop counting the cash they’ve looted from the people of Hungary
and the EU long enough to laugh at this, but I doubt it. Meanwhile,
Hungary is becoming the Zimbabwe of Europe, and it seems no-
one gives a damn.
Adrian Mann, can you please elaborate on this “Zimbabwe of Europe”-thing?
I see no hunger riots, not even any hunger. I do not see that the shops are empty, they are full of goods, much more now then when I came to Hungary in the beginning of the 1990s. The prices are cheaper than many places in Europe, the quality of products and services has improved a lot the last 15 years. The inflation is half of what is was 10-15 years ago. Compare today with the Bokross-years 10 years ago.
Yeah, I’m with Viking on this – Hungary is hardly the Zimbabwe of Europe. But it does have a little African vibe to it, inasmuchas if you want to do anything interesting business-wise, you’ll likely end up giving all your profits away to your “extended family,” meaning the government, or giving away nothing because you are a “big man” immune from the normal rules of life. The bigger q is what on earth the point of this Fidesz promo is.
Just wait a while and you’ll get the picture – note the word
‘becoming’. There are no people on the streets because there’s no
unity, no feeling of society, no solidarity. Everyone seems to bear it
in silence – it makes me wonder what it would take to actually
make them take to the streets. Prices cheaper? Are you sure? Prices
have gone up and wages have fallen in real terms over the last 4
years. People get paid less and pay more tax. Tell the pensioners
how cheap everything is.
The price comparison was between Hungary and other European countries for typical international goods (imported well-known brands) like electronics.
Hungary is in period of austerity measurements, like Germany, but they are maybe seeing the end of their period. France is looking ahead a few hard years and Sweden did their hard years during the 1990s.
Maybe Hungarians have not “given up and accepted bad living conditions” (as Orban says), they just understand the basics of economics.