Addressing parliament as a response to Orbán, radical nationalist Jobbik’s leader Gábor Vona said that Hungarians were afraid of migration and terrorism, but they also feared the return of the party state. Vona said that Jobbik will support all measures that strengthen Hungary’s safety, protect it from the EU migrant quota, migration itself and terrorism, but it will not support the ruling parties’ constitutional amendment proposal in its current form.

The government proposal would be a step towards North Korea, while the left-wing’s proposals would be a step towards Cologne, he added. In response to Orbán, the opposition Socialists’ leader called for financial and legal guarantees in public education.

József Tóbiás said in his parliamentary address that the participants of a weekend demonstration in Kossuth Square near parliament gave voice to justified demands because the government has destroyed public education and health care. The government’s talks with the protesters do not automatically mean an agreement because responsible government guarantees are needed to regain the trust of employees in the sector, he added.

The group leader of green opposition LMP said the government has set Hungary on a path that involves low wages and incentives favouring multinationals, effectively “turning Hungary into an assembly plant.” András Schiffer said that Hungary’s policies force young people to leave the country, which makes the government a generator of global disequilibrium, a cause for the migration crisis.

He criticised the government for drawing away money from education, which he said should be the basis of a developing economy. He called for wage increases for public workers and said that public employees’ wages have been unchanged for eight years.

The opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party said in a statement that Orbán failed to speak about the ruin of the health care system, the collapse of public education and the rise of poverty. Co-leader of the party Tímea Szabó said when 40% of the people live under subsistence level, “who cares about the public debt cuts, GDP growth and the foreign trade balance”.

Deputy leader of the opposition DK László Varju told a press conference that Hungary’s public debt increased in the past six years and the economy is “practically kept alive by EU resources”. Hungary has never before spent as little on education and health care as it does now, he insisted.

The opposition Liberals said in a statement that it was “incredible cynicism” of Orbán to talk about tax cuts when in reality there were record many types of taxes and the VAT burdening Hungarians is a “world record”.

The prime minister responded to Vona’s statements, saying that Hungary is not threatened by the return of the party state. Orbán stressed that the very reason many on his side of the political spectrum got into politics was to eradicate the single-party system.

Responding to Tóbiás’s criticism of the government’s handling of the education and health-care systems, Orbán said Fidesz inherited bankrupt schools and hospitals from the Socialist government in 2010. In response to LMP, the prime minister rejected Schiffer’s claims that the government’s economic policy is based on low wages, noting that wages are growing both in the public and private sector.

Responding to Schiffer’s statement about the government favouring multinationals, Orbán said Hungary could not sustain its current standard of living without pursuing an export-oriented economic policy.

Hungary can therefore not oppose free trade, he added. Orbán said that over the next seven years 60% of public funds allocated to economic development will go to small and medium-sized companies.

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MTI photo: Bruzák Noémi