In connection with Xi Jinping's visit to Budapest, Government Information stated: Hungary's importance in world politics is proved by the fact that, in addition to Paris, Budapest is the other EU capital visited by the Chinese head of state.
Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office, spoke to Government Information about the fact that at its meeting on Wednesday, the government analyzed the war situation, which became so much more serious compared to the previous ones that new details about NATO's plan came to light.
"What we know about the NATO-Ukrainian mission is about the delivery of weapons, and it also means military training. In the plan, assistance to Ukraine was determined for 5 years in advance. This in itself is worrying, that they expect the war to be prolonged," the minister pointed out.
He went on to point out that so far there have been around 800,000 victims of the war, and that the front lines have barely moved in the past two years.
That is why, instead of the participation and involvement of NATO, the Hungarian government is calling for the peace negotiations to start as soon as possible.
Gergely Gulyás reminded that NATO is a defense alliance, which itself determines an attack against any of its member states, and it does not have to be a specific attack: if a member state perceives an immediate threat of an attack, this can still be determined. There are already experiments and plans for this. But the Hungarian government is working to ensure that NATO does not interfere in this conflict in any way.
However, if it intervenes, Hungary, as a loyal NATO member, should not even have to participate in the military mission in Ukraine.
Hungary spends two percent of its annual GDP on defense, but we are interested in peace, not war, Gulyás added. He explained: we should not risk a world war between the nuclear powers.
In connection with Xi Jinping's visit to Budapest, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office said: Hungary's weight in world politics is that, along with Paris, Budapest is one of the two EU capitals visited by the Chinese head of state.
Regarding the fact that the Western press approves the Paris visit and opposes the Budapest visit, he said: double standards should be avoided.
He reminded: while China's GDP in 2005 was less than one-fifth of the EU's GDP, today it is ahead of the EU's total gross product. Today, 135 of the 500 largest European companies come from China, while 136 are American companies.
The Hungarian economy is the most integrated member state in the European Union, he added, referring to the fact that we are equally happy about American investments. There will also be specific agreements, an announcement will be made about this today at 6:30 in the afternoon.
Gergely Gulyás reminded: in 2023, the government's most important task was to break the wartime inflation, as a result of which inflation already fell to 3.6 percent in March. The year 2024 will be the year of restarting growth. Based on the first quarter data, this objective has also come true, even though the war environment has greatly reduced growth in Europe as a whole.
Hungary's first-quarter GDP grew by 1.7 percent on an annual basis, compared to the previous quarter by 0.8 percent, which is the third and second best in the EU.
The minister reminded that as long as the war in Ukraine continues, forecasts are more uncertain.
By 2025, the government considers even 4.1 percent economic growth to be realistic, but all of this is strongly influenced by the development of the war environment.
Retail turnover also increased, up by 4.2 percent by the end of March.
Evaluating tourism, Gergely Gulyás said that 7.1 million guest nights were booked by domestic hotels, which represents an increase of 14 percent. Last year, 2.1 million guests arrived, which means an 18 percent increase. reminded that more than one million people are currently working in Hungary than during the time of the left-wing government.
Since 2010, the minimum wage has increased three and a half times, and the average wage has almost doubled, he pointed out.
Government spokesperson Eszter Vitályos emphasized: the goal of the government is to have a secure roof over half of Hungarian families and to give birth to all desired and longed-for children.
That is why the government introduced Csok Plus as of January 1st, which is a discounted, state-subsidized loan that young married couples planning to have children can use as first-time spouses to buy their first home or to expand their home. HUF 15, 30 or even HUF 50 million can be used as part of chocolate plus.
There is a lot of interest in this type of credit, the amount of already received credit plus loan applications exceeds HUF 83 billion, so far more than 3,100 families have expressed an interest in it. The average mutual amount per person is HUF 26 million, which is much higher than in the case of the original tax.
He pointed out that by the end of March, more than 1,400 married couples had been awarded the Csoc Plus loan, worth HUF 35 billion.
Speaking about the home renovation program announced by the Ministry of Energy, the government spokesperson said: the program will be advertised from June 3, but more than 500 comments have already been received as a result of the calls. The social consultation of the program was concluded at the beginning of May, as a result of which the restriction that the applicant must be connected to the gas network was removed from the draft.
Eszter Vitályos also mentioned that in the last two weeks alone, more than HUF 210 billion in investments were realized in the country. Of this, the government spent more than HUF 180 million on road development.
Gergely Gulyás answered the question of the public media and said that nothing has changed in the functioning of the state in Poland, in fact, if we now subject it to a rule of law investigation, it has deteriorated much more.
However, a political force has come to power in Poland, which the European Commission considers its ally, and a pro-war, pro-war government. And that was enough to close the Article 7 procedure, said the minister.
He added: the Article 7 procedure against Poland, which was ongoing, and the one underway against Hungary, are not the same, because one was initiated by the committee, this one against Poland, and the other by the European Parliament. In the case of the committee's initiative, the sanction may be vote withdrawal, while in the case of the other, such a sanction is not possible - this is the case against Hungary.
Today, in the European Union, issues related to the rule of law have nothing to do with the law, they have become purely political issues, they are decided on the basis of political sympathy, said Gergely Gulyás.
He then emphasized: this weakens the European Union, and if the EU cannot return to the path of law, it threatens the cohesion of the European Union.
Cover image: Gergely Gulyás, Minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office at the Government Info press conference
Source: MTI/Zoltán Máthé
