Speaking ahead of next week's EU summit in Brussels, the prime minister said he could not "give a single argument" from the point of view of Hungarian interests to justify Ukraine joining the bloc, "and I can provide lots of arguments against Ukraine's accession", which he said would "ruin us" in terms of domestic agriculture and the Hungarian economy as a whole.

Also, he said it was unclear "how we could staunch crime" that would "flow into Hungary" as a result.

Orban: Govt achieved policy measures 'deemed impossible' over past 15 years

Hungary's government has achieved policy goals over the past 15 years that others have "deemed impossible", Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a weekly interview with public radio on Friday.

Orban pointed to the large scale of family tax allowances and the number of taxpayers impacted.

He said that a recently announced personal tax exemption for mothers of two under 40, affecting 120,000 taxpayers, would come into force from January 1. A PIT exemption for mothers of three will affect 230,000-240,000 taxpayers, and an exemption for mothers of two between the ages of 40 and 50 will impact 230,000 taxpayers when it comes into force in 2027, he added.

He said critics of the measures were right on one point, that the government had taken on an "enormous commitment", but added that it had successfully implemented other measures "deemed impossible" in the past 15 years.

He said those measures included the PIT system, the fostered workers programme and minimum wage increases. He warned that if the left wing were to return to government, the PIT rate for the middle class would again reach 35pc.

Orban said money generated from the strong performance of the economy would go to families "as long as it's up to us", not to multinationals.

Orban: Biggest corruption case in Western world must be exposed

The "left-wing international network" responsible for "big corruption cases taking hold in the entire Western world must be exposed in Hungary too", Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview to public radio.

The work of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk "must be continued urgently", Orban said, referring to US aid agency USAID.

He said USAID "gave money to people, organisations, and the media" to handle certain cases according to the agency's expectations, but this was "sold as independent and tolerant".

"They advised us to do awful things," Orban said, saying they wanted Hungary to take in illegal migrants, support the war in Ukraine, and expose schoolchildren to "all kinds of gender-activist explanations of the world."

Orban: Hungary to be 'tax paradise' for families

Hungary will be a "tax paradise" for families, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a weekly interview with public radio.

Orban said family was the "most important thing in the world" and peace was the most important guiding principle behind the government’s ambitious plans focused on families.
 

Speaking about the tax cuts he announced last week, Orban said there were two guiding principles behind them, and both were conditional on there being peace. Because of this, over the last three years the government "couldn’t even think about such breakthrough changes and sensationally unprecedented measures" such as the newly announced family benefits.

Concerning the war, Orban said there were still "fierce and bloody battles being waged on the front lines", but peace was within reach. It was also clear, he added, that the war would not escalate because the United States "has chosen the side of peace".
 

Orban said that for the first time he felt that the government could shape its economic policy "according to the logic of peace". He said the second guiding principle behind the tax cuts was that "family is the most important thing in the world".
 

"All of these measures, which are essentially changes in the tax regime, are based on this simple sentence everywhere in the world," he said, adding that people who have children should not be worse off financially than those without them.
 

He said Hungary's tax system was based on the idea that "if there's work, there's everything", but the opposite meant "suffering and misery". "Everyone should have a job and our families should be strong," he said.

Many had mocked the government's pledge to create million jobs in ten years, he said, "but this has proved possible".

At the same time, the government did not abandon social goals such as helping the poor, and kept the family allowance and introduced the tax relief for children, "because this is the nexus of work and having children".
 

Many had settled for "having a family, children, but no work; typically Roma families", he said, but the government then brought in measures to help young people, such as personal income tax forgiveness for under-25s and women under 30 raising at least one child and working mothers raising four children.
 

The prime minister said that the government's priorities had been affected by Covid and the war in Ukraine. "Let's be glad that we've survived and got this far," he said.
 

"Now that the war is over", he said, the economy was strong. And since 4.7 million people have jobs, the government was in a position to unleash resources that could be usefully tapped, he added.

The war and associated "sanctions-fuelled inflation" meant that family measures such as doubling tax relief for children had lost much of their value, so it was important to double down on such policies, he said, listing recently announced measures.

Hungary will be a "tax haven" for families, Orban said, with a tax system over four years "that puts families" at the heart of it. The system, unique in the whole world, would give young people the opportunity to start a family and work in parallel, he added.
 

Orban said government plans to roll out lifetime personal income tax exemptions for mothers with two or three children, complementing an existing PIT exemption for mothers of four, would help taxpayers in the millions.
 

Based on the implementation of the announced measures, "girls ... will grow up into adulthood, working age, and won't pay personal income tax. And when they retire, they will not pay either. There will be millions of them," Orban said. "There's nothing like this in the whole world; it's an entirely new approach," he said.

Orban suggested the Western world could adopt a similar approach to resolve problems with their own families, instead of relying on migration to fill holes in the labour market.

He said 120,000 mothers under 40 with two children, 230-240,000 mothers with three children, and 230,000 mothers with two children between the ages of 40 and 50 would enter the workforce in 2027. "So critics really are correct when they say the Hungarian government has made a massive commitment," he added.

In the past 15 years, the government "has done so much that they said could not be achieved", Orban said, citing slashing PIT by half, public works programmes and minimum wage hikes as examples.

The prime minister said that in good times, when the economy was performing well, "financiers and multinationals" wanted the proceeds to "go to them", adding that "if it's up to us, it goes to families".

At the same time, the budget deficit and public debt must be reduced, and this required "a total commitment", he said, adding that he would "personally and continuously supervise it", while the economy minister "must bring his professional knowledge to bear on how to adjust the other budget chapters so that the policy of family support can be implemented".
 

"I asked myself and the cabinet members the following question: the livestock farmers produce milk and sell it for 200 forints. Then I go to the store and it costs 550. Tell me how that’s possible. Why is that? And if the difference is this big, then why is there a need to raise [the price] by 30 percent at the beginning of the year?" he said.

"Let’s cut all the blah-blah about inflation," Orban said. "Instead we should be asking who is raising prices and why. Where does the money go, what can be done to help retailers, producers and processors?"

"How can the government help them cut their costs so that they don’t have to raise prices?" the prime minister said. "And how can I convince them not to raise them by that much? Because I can understand [why it happens] during the war ... but the war is over, there’s peace now, so why are you raising prices by that much?"

Orban said he has instructed the national economy minister to talks with retailers with a view to finding clear answers to these questions. "They shouldn’t want to get rich off people right when we’re coming out of a period of war," he said. "We ask for moderation, but if that doesn’t work, we’ll ask the economy minister to draft an action plan to force those who are raising prices not to raise them."

Orban said the government had to pay special attention to pensioners who were even more affected by inflation because pensions never rise at the same pace as wages.

The government is therefore rolling out a VAT rebate scheme for pensioners that will apply to certain basic foodstuffs, he noted.

This programme will be put together by the economy minister and it will be introduced in the second half of the year, Orban said. The rebates will add up to 10,000-15,000 forints a month, he said, adding that "the budget will be able to handle it."

Commenting on the issue of US international aid agency USAID, Orban said the "left-wing international network" responsible for "big corruption cases taking hold in the entire Western world must be exposed in Hungary too".

The work of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk "must be continued urgently", Orban said. He said USAID "gave money to people, organisations, and the media" to handle certain cases according to the agency's expectations, but this was "sold as independent and tolerant". 

"They advised us to do awful things," Orban said, saying they wanted Hungary to take in illegal migrants, support the war in Ukraine, and expose schoolchildren to "all kinds of gender-activist explanations of the world."

He said the network had "paid Hollywood stars millions of dollars to go to Kyiv because they think the war is just, the war is good and has to be continued". He called for "cutting off the tentacles of the case that extend to Hungary" and drafting the necessary legislation for this.

Orban said Hungary was "not prepared for this form of self-defence" because there were gaps that needed to be filled and "the conditions for a Hungarian public life without external influence aren’t met." "We have to create these legal conditions and enforce them," Orban added.

Meanwhile, the prime minister announced that the authorities will launch a "manhunt" against drug dealers on March 1.
 

He said the "invasive spread" of new drugs in small towns was a serious problem because "it turns our children into wrecks, eventually killing them."

"It has to be said that drug dealers make a living poisoning our children," Orban said, vowing to punish drug dealers.

Orban said the problem also called for a constitutional amendment declaring drug use punishable in Hungary. He called for strengthening the police force, setting up a task force and launching a large-scale operation to "rid the country of these new designer drug concoctions".

Commenting on the Budapest Pride march, Orban said: "That is over."

He said the march should never have been organised, but it was because"the procession was led by the US ambassador, which clearly showed that this was what the major world powers supported", adding that the world had since changed.
 

"This is contrary to the possibility of our children developing in a healthy, balanced way, and the way their parents want," he said. Orban said Hungarians "live in a normal world", and "madness hasn’t been unleashed here. He said people believed there were men and women, and if someone wanted gender reassignment "then that is a transition from one to another, but there’s no third, fourth of fifth [gender]".

Meanwhile, Orban said it was "unthinkable" that Ukraine could join the EU. The prime minister said he could not "give a single argument" from the point of view of Hungarian interests to justify Ukraine joining the bloc, "and I can provide lots of arguments against Ukraine's accession", which he said would "ruin us" in terms of domestic agriculture and the Hungarian economy as a whole.
 

Also, he said it was unclear "how we could staunch crime" that would "flow into Hungary" as a result.

Orban: Family ‘most important thing in the world’

Family is the "most important thing in the world" and peace is the most important guiding principle behind the government’s ambitious plans focused on families, the prime minister said in an interview with public radio on Friday.

Speaking about the tax cuts he announced last week, Viktor Orban said there were two guiding principles behind them, and both were conditional on there being peace. Because of this, over the last three years the government "couldn’t even think about such breakthrough changes and sensationally unprecedented measures" such as the newly announced family benefits.

Concerning the war, Orban said there were still "fierce and bloody battles being waged on the frontlines", but peace was within reach. It was also clear, he added, that the war would not escalate because the United States "has chosen the side of peace".

Orban said that for the first time he felt that the government could shape its economic policy "according to the logic of peace". He said the second guiding principle behind the tax cuts was that "family is the most important thing in the world".

"All of these measures, which are essentially changes in the tax regime, are based on this simple sentence everywhere in the world," he said.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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