According to the left, the economy is in ruins, and if Fidesz wins the April election, there will be austerity. The last time the Hungarian economy was at a standstill was before 2010, and the Orbán government never resorted to the policy of austerity. The left, on the other hand, would almost certainly return to pre-2010 practices, which would hurt everyone.
Opinion polls do not favor left-wing unity before the elections. It may happen, this also plays a role in the fact that Fidesz is accused of accusations that they themselves probably do not believe.
"If Fidesz wins, there will be austerity," says Momentum, for example. Anna Donáth, the president and MEP representative of the party, speaks on her social media page about how, in her opinion, the Hungarian economy is in a terrible state and the state coffers are empty. The latter's claim is justified by the fact that the government "distributed" hundreds of billions of forints during the "election campaign".
That is, according to them, the family tax refund and the restoration of the 13th monthly pension are still considered unacceptable on the left.
There is nothing to support the claim that the Hungarian economy is in ruins. The effectiveness of the government's economic policy is shown by the fact that last year's record growth of 7.1 percent far exceeded the EU average of 5.3 percent. The performance of the Hungarian economy is three times as great as it was in 2010. The number of employed people has increased by one million, tax burdens have decreased significantly, the domestic investment rate is outstanding even by international standards, and moreover – after overcoming the crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic – the national debt is decreasing again. Among the results, it is also worth mentioning that in the past twelve years, the value of state assets has increased from HUF 11,000 billion to almost twenty thousand billion HUF. The favorable financial condition of the country is also shown by the fact that if a crisis strikes, it is not necessary to turn to the International Monetary Fund to manage it. The government can handle the situation itself by reallocating resources.
The last time the Hungarian economy was in ruins was before 2010. The giga loan from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Union saved the country from bankruptcy.
This situation was caused by eight years of left-liberal governments running amok, which was further worsened by the 2008 financial crisis. The country tumbled from austerity to austerity, the left raised taxes eighty times, while the price of energy also rose continuously. Fidesz-KDNP received the authorization from the voters after that. That's when the turn came, that's when the policy of austerity ended. The leftist claim that if Fidesz wins again, there will be austerity, because this has not happened since 2010, even though the economic and financial situation was really bad then, is not credible.
However, there is a good chance that if the left wins in April, there will be austerity. They have always done this in government. Even after the 2019 local government elections, they started austerity measures in the settlements where they came to power.
It is already known that the current overhead reduction policy would be abandoned. The vast majority of residential consumers would have to pay market prices, which in itself would be considered a huge austerity measure.
You can read the entire Magyar Nemzet article
Photo: Koszticsák Szilárd/MTI
Photo: MTI/Zoltán Máthé
