Economist András Simor, former president of the Hungarian National Bank, gave a long interview to the Israeli economic portal, the Hebrew-language Calcalist, about the "Orbán system".
the economist, who considers himself "politically liberal, economically conservative" , the value of the forint compared to the euro has fallen by half, productivity is low, innovation is dying, economic development has stopped, and inflation is at a record high in the EU. According to Simor, Viktor Orbán is responsible for all of this, who, according to him, founded the current crisis with low interest rates and unsecured government spending. "Not the companies, but the young people emigrate, I am the only one of my friends whose children live in Hungary. This is very bad for the country, and for the labor market in particular," says Simor.
Simor admitted that the Hungarian economy has positive indicators, such as GDP growth, exports or the low unemployment rate, but according to him, there are "sinister phenomena" behind them: record-level corruption, the loss of rights of workers, the collapse of education and health care.
Simor sees the key to the legitimacy of the NER in the fact that after the regime change, Hungarians were only interested in their well-being, so few were interested in dismantling the pillars of the rule of law. According to Simor, Hungarians are characterized by individualism and a lack of solidarity, which is why the strategy based on the "divide and rule" principle of the Orbán system has been working for years. When certain minorities and social groups are in the crosshairs of the authorities, few people stand by them, he emphasizes.
According to him, Orbán exercises "total control" over Hungary, and Simor believes that even if the opposition wins the parliamentary election, the system would still cheat the result.
According to the economist, only a "major catastrophe" could shake the system, especially the death of Orbán - similar to Spain's Francisco Franco or Portugal's António de Oliveira Salazar, who ruled for decades, said Simor.
To the journalist's suggestion that both mentioned leaders were dictators who led a "corrupt and cruel" regime, Simor gave an evasive answer, avoiding the question of the system's violence.
Source: Mandiner/Telex
Image: Wikipedia
Civilek.info:
We are talking about András Simor, about whom Index wrote in 2009 that he would bring home the hundreds of millions he had "transferred" to Cyprus, and about whom 24.hu also wrote that "the scandal continues to surround Simor's offshore company". All this with the fact that Gyurcsány had already been the governor of the central bank since 2007, so he could have played an unavoidable role in the country's downward spiral, even if de jure the central bank is independent from the government.
Another. Beyond the fact that it is immoral to speculate on the death of others, Simor's delusion is that if Orbán is gone, the system he created will collapse. This is a huge mistake! To use an analogy: many people thought the same thing when Messi left Barcelona. But the backbone of the group remained there and, after being transformed, they have been making excellent music ever since. This is what the Simors don't want to admit: there is no real team on the left side, or what the wind blew together is at best the level of the NBIII.
And as long as that is the case, there is no need for them to hope for anything.
