“Hungary has surpassed countries in a better financial position than us in terms of the quality of our defense,” PM Orbán said at the outset of the interview. However, unfortunately, almost 500 people [in Hungary] have died in the epidemic, and families are in a difficult situation because of it.”
The key to a successful defense was discipline and teamwork. Aside from those on the left, everyone stuck together. All Hungarian citizens have done their utmost to contribute to the effort, Orbán said.
The Coronavirus Protection Act was an excellent decision because it enabled the government to make the necessary decisions on time. “As a result, compared to other countries, we were able to make decisions one or two weeks earlier,” the PM emphasized.
“Thanks to the instincts and knowledge of Minister Kásler [who is responsible for the health portfolio among others], I was able to make the necessary decisions sooner than other countries so that Hungary was able to avoid large-scale contamination,” the prime minister stated.
Over the summer, the epidemic may be on the decline, but that does not mean that the danger is over because there is no vaccine, he added. The epidemiological preparedness must be maintained to keep the epidemic under control, and the Operational Group will continue to meet daily and monitor the situation so that if anything goes wrong, we can respond immediately.
“It is not the left-wing opposition that needs to be taken care of, but the reorientation of life back to normal,” the PM stressed. The situation improved in Austria, followed by the Hungarian countryside and finally now Budapest. To this end, nursery schools, kindergartens and, in part, schools will reopen, but digital education will also remain. Regarding the mayors, it can be said that those who followed the instructions of the left performed poorly, he noted, indicating that those who rose above party politics did well.
Prime Minister Orbán urged everyone to practice social distancing because the danger is not yet over. If not followed, the epidemic could recur. And if the epidemic returns, the elderly may be in danger again.
“We can say that the defense has saved the lives of thousands of elderly people,” the prime minister added.
“Regarding the bureaucrats in Brussels, we can see that they are also beginning to revive,” the PM said, adding that although there have not been many judgments recently, he expects that many will be handed down going forward. As the PM pointed out, there is an old debate between Hungary and Brussels about who decides who lives with whom. Brussels is demanding the right to make this decision, and this is supported by the left. The position of the Hungarian government is the opposite, he explained.
The Brussels decision regarding the transit zone is a dangerous decision, not only for Hungary, but for all of Europe, the prime minister continued. Currently, 130,000 people want to get into Europe. The European Court of Justice has said that transit zones cannot be operated. This means that until a decision is made, the asylum seekers cannot wait in the transit zone. With the abolition of the transit zone, they will have to wait outside the country for a decision to be made sometime in the future.
“Wait outside the fence; we will make the [necessary] decrees in no time,” PM Orbán stressed. Asylum seekers can submit their claims at the embassy in Belgrade and wait outside the Hungarian border, the prime minister said. This is certainly worse for migrants, but if Brussels wanted it that way, so be it, he said. The goal of Brussels was to get migrants to wait inside the country. “We believe that they have to wait outside,” he added.
The decisions coming out of Brussels are no surprise, given that George Soros is behind the bureaucrats in Brussels. “They need the migrant crisis because if governments get in trouble, they need money and they will lend it at high interest. It is a tool to plunder countries, and George Soros is the grandmaster of it all,” he said. Of course, there is an ideological part to this as well, he added.
PM Orbán also talked about the economic steps the government is taking, noting that most of his efforts and time are spent on protecting jobs because people do not need aid but work. The goal is to create as many jobs as the virus destroys, or even more. There are currently more than one million people in Hungary whose work has already been helped to some extent by the state.
The number of people who receive unemployment benefits is 101,000 as of yesterday, and 75,000 people have been out of work for more than three months. There are 173,000 Hungarians who want to work and are now turning to the government. The number of participants in the public works program has grown to 200,000, and there is room for 3,000 soldiers to be recruited, the prime minister said.
The government gives money to those who want to invest, PM Orbán stated, confident that the economic protection plan would work. “Now I not only trust, but I also see how it will work. I have a relatively clear picture of what is going to happen,” he said. Things are in hand, we have made good decisions. Even so, anticipating the data coming data, it will be a very difficult April and a bad May, he warned.
The prime minister stressed that owners of Hungarian capital are also ready to take action. With more than 100 billion already invested, this could mean that the country can get back to previous growth levels much sooner.
“In the coming months, we will devote all of our energy to relaunching the economy, and I am now quite optimistic,” the prime minister concluded.