With the end of the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic, a new period begins, and we are entering an era in which countries have to face several challenges at the same time, stated the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office in Kossuth radio's Sunday newspaper program.
Among the challenges, Csaba Dömötör named economic problems, epidemics, environmental protection and migration. He said: those who collectively give good answers to these questions will remain on their feet and become stronger.
The government wants Hungary to emerge victorious from this period. This requires agreement on the main issues, which is what the national consultation serves, the ruling party politician pointed out.
He said: the forms can be returned until the end of August, and the website will be launched soon.
Csaba Dömötör explained that in some of the questions, opinions related to living standards, family tax refunds, low employer taxes and raising the minimum wage are expected.
He emphasized: despite all claims to the contrary, there is no agreement between the political parties on these matters. During the time of the left-wing government, the rate of employer taxes was almost 30 percent, but the current government has reduced this to almost half. In addition, the increase in the minimum wage was not as high as in recent years, and the opposition envisions family allowances along different principles than the government, he reminded.
According to his information, the Child Protection Act was also included in the consultation. He added: they feel that those who criticize the law have not even read it, because the law applies to children under the age of 18, whom the government wants to protect. He pointed out: the main question is whether foreign activists and political forces can have a say in how Hungary protects children. Therefore, the debate is ultimately about whether "we can decide our own future," he noted.
Reacting to the tone of the attacks due to the law, he said: Hungary is not a colony, "we are still able to make our own decisions about our lives and we insist on being able to do this."
The issue of migration is also on the agenda again, as the outbreak of the epidemic did not mean that migration had ceased, he pointed out. He added: Almost 40,000 illegal border crossing attempts were reported in Hungary this year alone, which is a significant increase.
When migration pressure increases, they want to warm up to the idea of mandatory distribution, he pointed out. According to Csaba Dömötör, the issue with migration is not how long it has been talked about, but what the consequences would be if Hungary gave up its position.
He gave as an example that two asylum seekers in Austria raped, drugged and killed a 13-year-old girl. They arrived with the migration wave of 2015, one of them also visited the prison. Csaba Dömötör put it this way: "we don't want to get here", so we need a common voice and a strong message again.
He also talked about the fact that the carbon tax, which the Brussels institutions want to introduce, was given a separate question on the forms. The European Parliament also voted on it and the Hungarian left-wing parties made a similar proposal, just as the European Commission is preparing a specific proposal, he said.
He emphasized: here it must be decided whether the burden of environmental protection should be borne by the big polluters or by all families. According to the government, they cannot put the burden of environmental pollution on families, and they would like the results of the consultation to confirm this.
Csaba Dömötör stated: in recent years, the government has continuously strived to bring employer tax, corporate tax and personal income tax to the lowest possible level, but there are also efforts to the contrary. Many people want, for example, higher taxes for companies on a global or European level, but if this were to succeed, Hungary's competitiveness would be undermined, he noted.
Source and photo: MTI
