Responding to a question about the economy from Péter Jakab, group leader of Hungary’s radical, anti-Semitic Jobbik party, Prime Minister Orbán said that in times of crisis, what is in Hungary’s interest should take priority over “pointing fingers.” “You have not put the country’s interest first for a single moment,” the PM said, adding that by failing to do so, opposition parties have proven that “when the country is in trouble, they cannot be trusted.”
“Jobbik is the only party that [the left-liberals] bought up by the kilo,” PM Orbán said, explaining that while Jobbik used to be a right-wing party, it has by now become clear that they have turned “irreversibly leftist.”
PM Orbán welcomed the fact that Socialist (MSZP) MP Attila Mesterházy “is keeping his fingers crossed” for the success of the country’s crisis management. According to the PM, several questions that previously seemed closed are now open again, and “the government is ready to consult with the opposition about economic strategy,” the prime minister noted.
“This cabinet will create as many jobs as are being lost to the virus,” Prime Minister Orbán said in response to concerns from the Democratic Coalition’s (DK) Gergely Arató about the economic implications of job creation. PM Orbán then reminded the MP that under the Socialist government in 2010, some 3.6 million people were employed in Hungary. Before the coronavirus crisis hit, this number stood at 4.5 million.
Meanwhile, LMP’s László Lóránt Keresztes asked the PM what will happen to Hungarians who remain jobless for more than three months, the duration of unemployment benefits. “There won’t be a single person who, at the end of these three months, will not have an offer from Hungary’s economic sector or the state,” PM Orbán said.