Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced that the government will continue to reduce unemployment and hike wages because "there is no other way to eliminate poverty".
During his year-opening press conference on Thursday, the prime minister called it a “fantastic achievement” that the number of jobholders had exceeded 4.5 million “for the first time in thirty years”.
PM Orbán revealed that wages have been growing for 82 consecutive months, and their growth rate has been the fastest for low earners. The Hungarian economy is constantly developing, and the government aims to reach 85 percent of the average European Union level of development by 2030. That figure was at 63 percent in 2010 and at 71 percent this year, he noted.
He also said he is ready to run for a fifth term as prime minister, though no personnel decisions had been made by the ruling Fidesz party concerning the 2022 elections.
The prime minister also said the government’s national energy and climate protection strategy aims to maintain the “common life of Hungarians” in the Carpathian Basin while adapting to climate change calmly and systematically.
PM Orbán said the plan is to gradually achieve 90 percent carbon-neutral electricity by 2030, with the Paks nuclear power plant providing the bulk of generation and solar most of the rest.
Hungary, he added, belonged to a group of countries that aimed for a climate-neutral economy by 2050, but this, he said, would cost HUF 50,000 billion (EUR 152bn) to achieve.
Photo credit: Index