Orbán warns Magyar’s budget will ‘end badly’ for everyone

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Viktor Orbán wrote that the work-based economy rests on six pillars: full employment, Europe’s lowest corporate tax, support for families, ensuring home ownership, the 14th-month pension, and utility cost reductions.

He assessed that full employment is over and that Tisza Party is bringing back unemployment. He said the Tisza government’s budget burdens employers, “amputates” support for families and the principle of home ownership for every family, and that the Tisza government will not pay out the next instalment of the 14th-month pension. It appears that utility cost reductions will still “survive,” he added.

“Taken together, this amounts to a misguided, left-wing economic policy. And as always, it will end badly. In the end, everyone will suffer,” the former prime minister said.

According to Fidesz, the budget planned by Tisza for next year takes from those who want to work more and get ahead. Commenting on Péter Magyar’s Tuesday radio interview, the opposition party wrote in a statement sent to MTI that the prime minister had “talked nonsense” there as well, and that what he says does not matter — only what happens does.

“The reality is that they are preparing a left-wing budget. They are taking from those who want to work more and get ahead,” they assessed.

In their view, this is a budget of tax hikes for businesses and employers: it represents not progress but a step backward, threatens jobs, and risks bringing back unemployment — something Hungary has long been unaccustomed to. It brings tax increases for mothers and 138,000 small business owners registered under the kata system; this budget means shrinking wage increases and rising prices, they added.

The party stressed that what Hungary needs today is not new taxes or tax hikes, but a reduction in the tax burden on labour.

Artificial intelligence was used for the translation of parts of the original Hungarian text.