The first priority of a Fidesz government will be to launch economic growth by cutting taxes, Peter Szijjarto, the head of the party’s cabinet, told MTI in an interview.
Szijjarto said that Fidesz would renegotiate the conditions of the IMF-led loan to Hungary, and accused the current government of giving into far stricter conditions than those applied to other countries with similar bailouts.
Fidesz leaders earlier said that a conservative government would allow higher spending next year and it would not try to keep to the target of a budget deficit no higher than 3.8 percent of gross domestic product.
Szijjarto said measures to stimulate growth included restoring some family benefits such as maternity and child support reduced by the current crisis-management government and axing a new property tax. He added that Fidesz would scrap the 2010 budget which is about to be voted on in parliament.
Will Fidesz get a two-thirds majority? Szijjarto said in the system governed by Hungary’s electoral law, such an outcome belonged to the “category of miracles” — but he would not rule it out entirely.
Fidesz has a commanding lead according to polling surveys, and several over the summer showed the party with a possible two-thirds majority, which would hand it the magic bullet to change the constitution; more recent surveys indicate the gap between the embattled minority governing Socialists and the main conservative party narrowing slightly.
Other measures outlined by Szijjarto were to introduce dual citizenship for ethnic Hungarians living beyond the borders, setting Hungarian-Slovak relations on a new footing based on mutual respect and boosting the number of policemen.
He insisted that respect was lacking on the Slovak side due to its government kowtowing to extremists, adding the view that Slovakia was not conversant with European values. The Hungarian nation would not allow the treatment of President Laszlo Solyom to go unanswered, he said.
On the domestic front, he pledged to restore county public administrative centres, to cut red tape and fight corruption. Szijjarto accused the Socialists of skimming funds from public institutions and said the Fidesz would put a stop to the alleged practice. Fidesz also stands by an earlier pledge to reduce the number of deputies in Hungary legislature, the Fidesz politician added.
So, not to pay back the loans to IMF, break the rules for getting the IMF-loans in the first place and give more money to everyone.
Combine that with Viktor Orban’s statement in another thread that:
‘”I consider holding accountable those responsible for Hungary’s present position as more important than the country’s finances,” Fidesz chairman Viktor Orbán told MTV talk show “Ma reggel” (This Morning) on Friday.’
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Viktor keeps on playing on the illusion that enormous amount of money is hidden away and just by changing the Government this money will suddenly appear and Hungary does not need to apply to normal logic.
Before the 2006 General Election the MSZP Government painted a too rosy picture of the state of Finances. This ended up in the infamous ‘lie-speech’ in the Summer of 2006.
At the same Election Fidesz tried to paint a maybe more accurate picture of the state of Finances (= not so rosy). The question is what they are trying today?
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As comparison Latvia is heavily criticized for not following the rules for getting loans by not introducing the Property Tax that was one of the criteria. It will be interesting to see how this will be played out now, especially as Germany seems to run out of money to artificially keep the machinery up now.
Some time ago I posted some excerpts from an article that came out of (dare I say it) the World Bank Economic Review. Of course the reaction was a great deal of screaming and shouting at me for even suggesting such a source rather than actually reading the article…anyway, it was pointing out that although it might seem logical to default on loans, that the long term impact could be devastating given that it would seriously affect Hungary’s ability to ever get credit again.
The article was saying that as hard as it is to hear, the burden Hungary is now feeling was to a large degree the price paid for the ‘happy barracks’ period and the mountains of debt run up by the communists from the 60s onwards. By the way, the author was a Hungarian economist from some university of economics in Budapest. Also by the way, I am actually very much for the idea that Hungary should get some debt relief and/or cancelling of loans that were made by the communist government as a) they obviously didn’t speak for the people and b)half of the blame should fall on the western banks and governments that lent so much money to Hungary without considering what would happen later.
“b)half of the blame should fall on the western banks and governments that lent so much money to Hungary without considering what would happen later”
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Well that would then be a perfect argument not to borrow Viktor Orban any money, then he obviously is not so interested in paying back.
I’m not suggesting Hungary should just ‘not’ pay it’s debts, I’m saying the West could do a lot of good to Hungary (and Europe as a whole) by relieving the debt burden. A healthy Hungary is good for everyone. I’m also saying that when it comes to blame for Europe’s darker issues, there is enough to go around for everyone. More taking of responsibility and less finger pointing would, in my opinion, do everyone a lot of good…Hungarians and non-Hungarians alike.