April 20th, 2012

Quotable: Viktor Orbán on where EU money comes from

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“I have always regarded funds directed here from the EU as our money that only reaches Hungary with Brussels in the middle.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, speaking yesterday on local television in Debrecen, explaining that when Hungary joined the EU in 2004 it gave up most of its ability to collect customs duties and offered investment opportunities and markets for companies from the EU. Asked a pending suspension of EUR 495 million of EU "cohesion funds" because of Hungary's excessive deficit, he said "money from the EU is our money, it is not a gift or a reward," and "we will not bow to losing a single forint, we will get every forint that is ours and therefore we have a right to it." [portfolio.hu/mti.hu]
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  • ThE_WoRd

    At first I thought that this was serious, then I realized that no, no, it’s impossible that this was not said in any other manner other than tongue in cheek. It’s great to see that Hungary’s PM still has a sense of humor when it comes to such an incredibly important matter. The guy has timing, that’s for sure.

  • Timi

    Guess what Germany’s net contribution to the EU is approximately? A few billion given to the EU. Same with U.K. and other countries.

    Guess what Hungary’s net contribution to the EU is, yes, that’s right almost -3 billion euro, that Hungary has received in net from the EU.

    So in essence, we are getting other countries funds, it doesn’t just grow on trees, it’s contributed by other countries.

    • Timi

      And further to this, if we weren’t in the EU in 2008, we would have drowned in debt thanks to the world financial crisis in 2008.

      So stop the game that EU owes us and that the IMF is our bank, you might convince the voters that can’t think for themselves, but you are making an ass out of us internationally.

      • Aloof

        Every time he steps foot outside the kingdom.

        He’s seen as an arrogant little barking dog that contributes nothing and demands everything, arrogantly. He thinks he’s smarter and more clever than everybody else when all he does is make himself and the country look like assholes.

        His crap may work at home but is a disaster internationally.

  • Francis Dedeyne

    A disaster? That’s an understatement!

  • GW

    The EU funds are only the icing on the cake of the income to Hungary from not having customs duties on its goods sold to EU countries. If OV really wants a return to duties, then he ought to try and make that case!

    • Feher Gyorgy

      Yes, screw the EU and their lousy funds! I hope Orban will find the courage to tell Barroso that he can stick them where the monkey stuck his nuts.
      If we combine the customs duty, excise duty, import and and export VAT, special d#ckhead taxes for German, French, UK and Italian companies, XL-special c#cksucker taxes for Austrian, Romanian and Slovakian companies, then we will quickly become one of the richest countries in the world.

      • Bowen

        Mr. Feher, don’t forget the special financial transaction taxes whenever we withdraw money from our bank accounts! Yeah!!(Which I’m happy to pay, by the way. President Schmitt’s retirement package and all those buses to the Peace Marches aren’t going to pay for themselves, you know!)

      • Aloof

        C’mon man, don’t forget that OV wants to slap new telephone and internet taxes on top of the transaction taxes. (Never mind he already illegally slapped MNC telcos with taxes that already got passed down to you know who) so I guess this time he just wants to get personal. You should give him a call (well maybe not eh, can’t even use Skype now) and tell to OV go investigate and collect company tax evasion (still a time honored tradition in the kingdom). Goddamnit, let’s sic the TEK on ‘em. Shit, can’t do that either because 80% of the tax evaders are connected to Parliament and their business partners in crime. But wait… all these new taxes, (Jesus I’ve lost count how many) just created new black market entrepeneurs how to evade them. Well he did say he was going to create new jobs though. Will someone at least tell Lajos Simicska to take off the KOZGEP windbreaker he was wearing the other day? He still refuses to go digital avoiding VAT and Customs taxes though. He’s a smart guy…

  • Focus on the bigger picture

    And the beat goes on…and the beat goes on.
    TGIF – or is it?
    A helyzet szar, de nem remenytelen.

  • bemused

    The issue of ‘lost’ import duties and the like needs to be put in perspective. Hungary cannot levy duty on imports from the EU – but the advantage to Hungarian exporters from the same regulation in other EU states is huge – if, that is, there is anyone left in the country interested in producing anything.
    Hungary also collects duties on manufactured products entering the EU from outside (via Hungary) and the more or less parallel levies on agricultural produce. Goods in transit never counted and so only such (non-EU origin) imports which stayed in Hungary would have benefited the budget (a little). It is also the case that Hungary is allowed to retain a good slice to cover ‘local expenses’ -and, no doubt, to stuff a few more trouser pockets.
    Little Viktor and his gang of inadequates must view the electorate with total contempt to feed them on such rubbish.
    Shameless liars, crooks to the last man – what better government could a good Christian country like this need?

  • én

    funny, when you want to pay at duty free at ‘liszt ferenc’ by credit card, you cannot pay in forint!!! again i think that Orbanorszag should get out of Europe altogether, build a wall all around with special corridors for the hunz from neighboring countries to enter (for as long as they carry the fidesz card with them) and then perhaps some would start realizing that there is something rotten in the kingdom of Orban!

    • Rolrox

      Honestly, if you think you’re getting a deal at the airport, you are mis-informed. So it’s duty free, they’ve priced up all the items to counter the higher than the high street rents.

      • Aloof

        Well… there are yeses and no’s to that. It depends what you’re buying. Either way, they have a captive customer. The one thing that they are useful for is bringing something back from a country that you can’t get in your own. What I don’t like is that you’re forced to buy liquor and or any other fluids there because you won’t get them through airport security on the front end. That’s where they price rape you and no use calling for help.

  • Andy

    What’s stopping Orban from leaving the EU if it’s such an awful place? He has a 17% supermajority in Parliament!

    • Philip

      There is technically nothing stopping any country from leaving the EU. The issue is that you will be fined so heavily if your country has had a negative contribution, which is the case of Hungary.

      This will be coupled with your exports being shot to pieces. Your currency would also be kicked in the bum for a long time, and your investors would start to look for alternatives.

      The IMF would probably not want to touch you with a twelve foot pole, and in the end your country would go for default which would make people run for the borders and work in other countries illegally for the next 12 months while the default would be in full effect.

      Fortunes would be lost, poverty would be imminent, and the country would be on it’s knees for more than half a decade.

      Leaving the EU is only an option if your country is in great shape, and even then the business and investor relations could jeopardize your countries future for a very long time.

      • ak

        the eu/imf is like an economic prison system.

  • Dick

    Orbanistan, the land of milkin’ money

  • Weasel Watch

    This is all a slow motion train wreck.

    When the Orbanites won, my wife warned me that we couldn’t stay long, because she said she knew what a dictatorship smelled like.

    Just when things seemed to have calmed a bit with the resignation of Schmitt Plag, showing cracks in the edifice, these geniuses come up with new ways to stick it to normal people.

    And the sad thing is that most will just take the punishment and do nothing about it. He knows that.

    • Letoistic Idiot Watch

      You stayed for too long in this “dictatorship” already. Please go to the f…ing hell as soon as possible.

      • Aloof

        @ Letoistic Idiot Watch says: April 21, 2012 at 1:39 pm

        The only idiots will be the people that either stay here or continue to let this disastrous joke you call a leader continue to pile up more than 10 billion forints/ month of unneccesary debt just because he’s an arrogant asshole. Guess who is going to and already is paying for that genius? Him? Why do you think he’s adding new taxes on a weekly basis?

        Read “Hungary may lose hundreds of billions of forints without IMF/EU assistance” over at portfolio.hu

        If you tell me that’s just fine with you because of some political ideology then you’re not just an idiot, you’re insane.

        • Leto مؤدّب

          Sure, sure. :)

          You’re about to leave this “dictatorship”, so don’t worry. Concentrate on this instead:
          -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFQ8cSn0gb0&feature=relmfu

          • Aloof

            @ Leto مؤدّب says: April 21, 2012 at 2:56 pm

            What in the hell does that have to with anything? What does that have to do with your denying and deflecting this:

            The only idiots will be the people that either stay here or continue to let this disastrous joke you call a leader continue to pile up more than 10 billion forints/ month of unneccesary debt just because he’s an arrogant asshole. Guess who is going to and already is paying for that genius? Him? Why do you think he’s adding new taxes on a weekly basis?

            Read “Hungary may lose hundreds of billions of forints without IMF/EU assistance” over at portfolio.hu

            If you tell me that’s just fine with you because of some political ideology then you’re not just an idiot, you’re insane.

          • Leto مؤدّب

            Don’t bother, it was only for your entertainment. Don’t bother about Hungary either, you’re leaving this dictatorship soon.

  • Anonymous

    @Aloof,
    Everyday I ask myself what am I doing here, I feel like an idiot by the day!
    My husband hasn’t spoken of moving at all. I suppose he is staying because of his mother, so who am I to compete with that…

    • spectator

      I keep wandering, just how stupid a PM really could get, before the people will throw him and his inadequate government to the trash-bin, and put finally some professionals in charge instead these underdeveloped dilettante wannabies…

  • Innocent bystander

    Considering that Leto doesn’t live in Hungary (he’s currently in the UK, presumably because he can’t make a decent living in his beloved homeland), his remarks here are especially pathetic and hypocritical.

    • Leto غول مؤدّب

      Your information on me is outdated. I live in Hungary.

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