Hungary should be governed by non-partisan experts until the next elections in spring 2010, Gabor Fodor, leader of the liberal Free Democrats, told the press on Tuesday.
“The minority Socialist government should be replaced by a cabinet of experts,” Fodor told national daily Nepszabadsag, insisting that “the current government is paralysed by its lack of credibility”.
The Socialists will need the votes of Free Democrat MPs in order to pass the 2009 budget, which contains part of a multi-year tax-cutting package. But the Free Democrats at the weekend rejected the government’s programme, saying that the financing of tax cuts was not credible because the budget failed to cut back adequately on spending and while the state would still have an over-centralised role in the economy.
Fodor told Nepszabadsag that the Socialists were incapable of boosting economic growth and ensuring long-term sustainability.
Fodor told state television on Tuesday that the liberals, who governed with the Socialists until May this year, would not return to the coalition.
“The Liberals will not return to this government.”
Despite Fodor’s determined rejection of the government’s action plan based on massive tax cuts, a recent survey has shown that the majority of voters wanted the liberals to co-operative with Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany and approve his budget, said national daily Nepszabadsag.
Major components of the programme — which targets tax cuts of 1,000-1,200 billion forints over the next few years — were favourably received by liberal respondents to a Szonda Ipsos poll, though 40 percent indicated scepticism when the scheme was associated with the prime minister regarding specific issues.
The conservative opposition has been urging the liberals to join them in opposition with the aim of passing an alternative — and more radical — programme of tax cuts.
