Mr Orbán stressed that the first more spectacular fruit of the cooperation of the government and the chamber had finally ripened, and he simultaneously thanked the chamber for the agreement concluded earlier.
Today, one can hear effectively only bad news about the European economy, he recalled, stressing that Europe’s competitiveness is deteriorating, and there is no plan to improve it. What we see is a defensive, shrinking “European economic policy with a hedgehog posture,” he said, describing the situation.
Energy prices are sky-high, here is the Russo-Ukrainian war and the related debates of an economic nature about how much money should be given to Ukraine, how to raise those funds, and whether those funds would perhaps be better used in the European economy, he listed the problems.
He stressed that this was not good for a country which did not just want to defend itself, but also wanted to develop.
He summarised the government’s economic strategy in four points: a 3 per cent credit facility offered for home buying, a similar credit facility offered to businesses, tax cuts for families and the reduction of taxes targeting businesses.
We are now talking about the second pillar, how to provide a credit facility for Hungarian businesses which is easy to access, is significant help for them, is not bureaucratic, is any-purpose with fixed interest, meaning that taking out a loan does not pose an unpredictable risk for businesses, and one that is made available to businesses via a tested and tried channel as there is already a mechanism in place. “In practice, this means that from Monday, we will lower the interest rates of all credit products available via the Széchenyi Card to 3 per cent. This is great help for small and medium-sized businesses as it is flexibly accessible and is an any-purpose facility,” Mr Orbán explained.
In answer to a question, the Prime Minister said regarding the fiscal impacts of the programme that, with the new credit facility included, this year the government is allocating HUF 250 billion for grants made available for the Széchenyi Card system, while in 2026, they will allocate HUF 300 billion, including HUF 60 billion for the fixed 3 per cent credit facility.
Regarding the timing of the programme, he recalled that at the beginning of the year, he had spoken about a flying start in the hope that new US President Donald Trump would swiftly achieve a peace deal and that this would change the economic environment. However, as the US President’s attempt to restore peace has been unsuccessful so far, everything had to be re-scheduled, he added.
“There was a flying start, except not from 1 January, but from 1 July,” he said, recalling that it was from then that they introduced the tax exemption of the infant and child care benefits and the 50 per cent increase of the family tax benefit as well as the grants intended for businesses, while they delayed the payment of the vouchers made available for pensioners to October.
In his view, the re-scheduling of these measures falls beyond the government’s control; it was due to the international situation and the war that they were unable to launch the programme now announced in January.
In answer to the question of whether the government will adjust its projection for the increase in the GDP, given that the Hungarian National Bank has downgraded its projection for this year to 0.6 per cent, the Prime Minister said they are not planning any adjustment, it is already October, “we’re close to closing time.”
Regarding as to whether it would be worth adjusting the 2026 projection, he said they are considering this, but at this point in time, there is no decision yet. He said he asked the finance minister to devise an economic policy which will bring about the recently announced 3.1 per cent growth undertaken in the budget. “Meaning that we’re fighting for a 3.1 per cent growth. We want to keep the bar where it is, not to lower it. We’ll train more instead so that we can jump higher,” he pointed out.
In answer to a question about the Tisza Party’s taxation plans, the Prime Minister said there is complete chaos regarding this issue, the reason being that politics and the entertainment industry have converged, and there is no way of knowing what it is that should be taken seriously and what not. In his view, one cannot conduct a meaningful discussion about these issues in a situation when the essence of Tisza’s publicly announced political strategy is that they will not tell the people what they are preparing to do after the elections because if they did, they would lose the elections.
At the same time, he said in continuation, the Hungarian opposition has for a long time only wanted what Brussels wants, and Brussels continually expects Hungary to do away with flat-rate taxation, to raise the taxes levied on businesses, to transform the regime for the reduction of household energy bills and to scrap the 13th monthly pension.
“What I’m saying is not based on what one opposition party or another says, but what their masters say,” he said.
He stated that today in Hungary, we had Europe’s most effective taxation regime with the lowest taxes on work, and with Europe’s second lowest tax for businesses. He said the structure of the Hungarian economy is completely different from that of Western European economies: the Hungarian economy is a workfare economy, while Western European economies are welfare societies transformed into benefit-based economies.
He underlined that taxes must be lowered, never raised because tax increases never benefited anyone in Hungary.
Regarding the fact that a politician from Tisza spoke about the transformation of health care, schools, agriculture and public transport, Mr Orbán said they want to close down hospitals, they want fewer schools and they want to hand over the agricultural market to the Ukrainians.
He said “the opponent is in a state of shock, at times like this, a fair opponent stops hitting. The flood has washed them away. Tisza is flooding, and the flood has washed them away. There is no point in punching them any further.”
At the press conference, Mr Orbán was also asked whether they were contemplating any legislative amendment in connection with the incident involving the Szőlő utca youth detention centre. The Prime Minister pointed out in this regard that Hungary belonged to European civilisation, and therefore, there was no place here for any retroactive amendment to the Criminal Code.
He added that there were laws in effect also at present which were there for everyone to see and which tied legal consequences to certain acts. Not even the word ‘retribution’ would be unjustified, but the term ‘legal consequences’ is more appropriate, he observed.
He also highlighted that this was not just simply a fake news scandal. Two members of the government who are responsible for guaranteeing the country’s safe functioning were attacked “with the gravest possible blood libel in our Christian civilisation,” he said.
He recalled: they said that this man is a paedophile and a member of the government, and such a government “must be swept away” if this is true as a government is there not to shelter persons committing the gravest crimes, but to guarantee predictable conditions for life in the country, he laid down.
Meaning that such an accusation is extremely serious: it is not just that someone said something nasty about someone else. This is not the same as when at times in politics, the opposing parties inappropriately label one another, crossing certain lines, he pointed out.
He recalled: they said that “Uncle Zsolt is a paedophile,” and there is only one Zsolt in the government. Several members of the government were accused, and this is a crime. “This has and will have legal consequences,” Mr Orbán stressed.
