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Mr Orbán stressed that as part of the housing credit facility, they had fixed the maximum price per square metre, “it will not boost the sale of luxury and big homes.” It will instead create an opportunity for the middle classes as well as for those who do not yet belong to the middle classes, but are below or next to them because they have not yet entered the market of home owners.
“In my mind, this is also an inclusion programme, nation-building inclusion, a programme that above all helps young people to connect to their motherland,” he stated.
He indicated that there was enormous interest in the programme which could result in a real estate development boom which could in turn boost the strength of the economy. This is not just a well-founded programme, but also an economically reasonable one, he stated.
He took the view that since the Covid pandemic, there has been uncertainty in the world, the Russo-Ukrainian war is ongoing, now, to make matters worse, the US president launched a tariff war, and technological changes, too, are under way. We have artificial intelligence, and many things that previously seemed stable are being questioned. This uncertain environment is causing young people even more of a difficulty; this is why the government is trying to help them with home creation, he added.
Mr Orbán recalled that in the private economy, the opportunity of employers providing housing benefits up to HUF 150,000 a month, under preferential terms of taxation, for their own workers not only for the purchase of homes, but also for rental, had already existed since the beginning of the year.
Now, the government is also launching a programme for public service workers: they may be eligible for one million forints, net, a year for the amortisation of their housing loans or for own contributions for the purchase of homes, he added.
He stressed that this was a significant benefit and also a great opportunity for public service workers.
He added that they were struggling with the situation that there were professions, especially in Budapest, Pest County, where due to high property prices, it was impossible to find qualified workforce, and where they were compelled to employ workforce brought in from the countryside. It would be good also in general if a higher percentage of public service workers were home owners, he observed.
Now, they are opening up an opportunity for police officers, soldiers, physicians, health care workers, teachers, civil servants and everyone else falling into this category, to the extent of one million forints a year, he indicated.
He also highlighted that this measure pointed beyond money. It is about the fact that public service workers deserve appreciation as they work for us, it is important to reciprocate this, and that the state, too, should show its respect and appreciation.
He recalled that the other area in which the government had promised a breakthrough in February was the area of family support.
This is a genuine pro-family tax revolution because they have exempted the infant and child care benefits from the payment of personal income tax. Over a period of two years, the extra income could reach a million forints, and now they are also doubling the tax benefit available in relation to children in two stages, he pointed out, recalling that in the first week of August, everyone will receive their higher salaries due to the increased family tax benefit.
He added that the same thing would happen to families on 1 January again when they would increase the tax benefit of families with 1 to 3 children by another 50 per cent. At the same time, this October, mothers with three children will be given personal income tax exemption for life, and from 1 January the same exemption will also be extended to mothers of two. “Meaning that we are living through the first few days of a tax revolution to take place over a period of six months,” he stated in summary.
“This is no less than a tax revolution. This is a pro-family tax revolution. There is nothing like this anywhere in the world. Not in general, but certainly not specifically at this point in time when there is austerity everywhere in the western world. So, Hungary is the odd one out. Meaning that rather than introducing austerity measures in this chaotic, war-stricken economic world situation, we’re opening up opportunities for young people as well as for families,” he said.
Mr Orbán highlighted that it was the duty of the government to help people set goals for themselves. This in turn requires that the government should also set goals for itself.
The Prime Minister recalled that he had begun every term of government by making clear the goals set and that they wanted to achieve them. If you have goals, you must subject the budget, the management of finances to those goals, Mr Orbán said, stating that at this point in time pro-family governance is the most important objective.
Housing support and helping working people and people raising children are a part of this. The pro-family tax revolution, too, is about this, he pointed out.
Regarding the tariff agreement between the EU and the United States, the Prime Minister said Britain is a country of 70 million that left the EU. The EU has a population of more than four hundred million, yet, Britain concluded a much better deal with the Americans. If a country with less strength concludes a better deal than an entity with greater strength, it is a professional failure for the bigger one, he stated.
Mr Orbán highlighted that you needed two things for negotiating, for a good deal. The first one is timing, “when you start negotiating, whether you take the first step or wait instead, whether you take the initiative or choose a defensive position.” The second one is the content of the offer about which you want to agree. It is best to have multiple offers, “it’s good if you know how to play chess or cards, and then you can think several steps ahead,” he pointed out.
According to the Prime Minister, the EU made several mistakes. The first one is timing because as soon as the US president took office, he should have been taken more seriously. Compared with this, people in Europe laughed at him, “in Brussels, they didn’t take him seriously, they kept insulting him, they thought that it had been just an accident, they made all sorts of comments in bad taste about the new US president who doesn’t forget these things,” Mr Orbán listed, observing that this is not a good negotiating tactic.
On the other hand, they did not take it seriously that the US president would indeed rearrange the world economy, “they thought he was a big mouth American businessman” that would not do half of what he said he would, he stressed.
Meanwhile, the US president is implementing the promises he made to his electors point by point. It is also a part of this that he will transform the tariff system that is unfavourable for America. “If you don’t believe this, but laugh at it – ha-ha-ha! – then you may find yourself in trouble. This is exactly what the EU did,” the Prime Minister said in summary.
Mr Orbán also spoke about the fact that he had been saying since February that the EU should take the initiative, “we should come up with something,” we should change over to full free trade, or should select certain sectors for which we should conclude special agreements, but “we shouldn’t wait like a frozen bunny rabbit or an animal mesmerised by a hissing snake which will then strike.”
Regarding the content, Mr Orbán believes it is important that an agreement should contain pledges that you can deliver on. The President of the Commission concluded agreements which she had no business with, he stated.
He said it is part of the deal that the European Union will buy energy carriers from the United States. However, Brussels has never bought a single cubic metre of gas, “it has no country,” there are only Member States and the Member States buy energy. “I did not authorise her to agree on this on my behalf. I don’t know if the others did, but I don’t think so,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
He added that the President of the Commission had also concluded an agreement to the effect that we would implement investments worth EUR 600 billion in the United States, while Europe was short of capital. “If anything, money should be brought here, not taken out,” he observed, adding that no one gave the President of the Commission a mandate for this either.
The President of the Commission made commitments to America which do not fall within her remit, Mr Orbán said in summary, adding that tariffs fall within the remit of the President of the Commission, unlike the secret clause about the supply of weapons to Ukraine. “Because if I understand it correctly, here behind the whole thing there is a deal that the Americans will provide weapons for the Ukrainians in such a way that we Europeans will pay for them,” he said. “No one asked me about this. There is no European decision about this, that we want this,” Mr Orbán stated.
The tariff agreement between the United States and the EU “is a terrible economic agreement, an economic own goal,” the Prime Minister said in summary, adding that everything that could be professionally messed up about this agreement has been messed up.
It is not just that we concluded a bad deal because every European product going to America is subject to a 15 per cent tariff, while everything coming from there is subject to nothing, but also because we pledge to do things that we evidently cannot deliver on, he added.
Rather than having concluded the tariff disputes, we lost the first battle, and there will be further battles ahead, he stated, mentioning that if the agreements on investments worth EUR 600 billion as well as on the purchase of weapons and energy are not honoured, then we will have to renegotiate the tariff agreement.
He also said that a normal person does no such thing as that they arrange things that do not belong together into a single basket, with an overall negative balance for the Europeans. If we want to conclude an agreement with the Americans about Ukraine, we should do so not in a secret clause attached to a tariff agreement, but separately, we should conduct separate talks about it, he stressed.
We must protect industry and jobs, the government will have two action plans because the tariff agreement between the European Union and the United States negatively affects businesses operating in Hungary, he pointed out.
Mr Orbán said direct and indirect exports from Hungary to the United States amount to some USD 11 billion. A 15 per cent tariff added to this is an extra one and a half billion dollars.
The government will have to formulate two action plans: a job protection plan to make sure that international companies operating in Hungary do not respond to the higher tariff item by laying people off, or if they do, they should immediately offer the people laid off other jobs. We also need an industry protection action plan in order to avoid the closure of certain plants just because it is not worth keeping them operational due to the high tariffs on products exported to the United States, he said.
He added that Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó had been authorised to conduct talks with the large investors with whom the government had concluded strategic agreements, while Minister for the National Economy Márton Nagy had been given a mandate to consult with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He also spoke about the fact that the European leaders were weak, pathetic, they had a big mouth and lectured others, while they had no strength, and meanwhile in negotiations they showed no talent or abilities, “this is the worst possible combination.”
“We’re on bad terms with the Americans. We’re on bad terms, in fact, we’re at war with the Russians, and we’re on bad terms with the Chinese, too,” he pointed out.
Mr Orbán said it is a very poor result that this is the best the leaders of the European Union and the European Parliament’s strongest party, the European People’s Party – to which the most prime ministers belong and which supports President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen – could achieve on the basis of a very powerful and clear parliamentary majority. “At times like this, you should pack your bags and leave, you should say thank you for the trust so far, and go back home,” the Prime Minister observed on Kossuth Radio.
