Kicking off his interview this morning on public radio, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented Hungary’s latest coronavirus figures. “In my morning report today, I saw that no one has passed away due to the coronavirus in the last 24 hours,” PM Orbán said, adding that 98 Hungarians are currently hospitalized with the disease, 22 of whom are on ventilators.
“The number of vaccinated will reach 5.5 million today, and the number of those who received the second shot will reach 5 million in a matter of days,” the prime minister said, referring to the milestone required for the lifting of, among other measures, obligatory mask-wearing. Asked about a potential fourth wave of the virus, the PM said that “politicians should not become epidemiological experts;” everyone should get vaccinated, as the vaccine is the only effective weapon against the coronavirus.
Commenting on the economic reopening, the prime minister said that while there has already been a boost in Hungary’s economic performance, “the gears are still squeaky.” According to PM Orbán, this is why it’s important to make powerful government decisions that may even be surprising at times. “If we let the economy restart on its own, the reboot is going to be slow, growth will stay low, and there will be less money in the economy,” Prime Minister Orbán said.
Among these decisions, the prime minister mentioned a ban on the export of construction materials to take effect in October. According to PM Orbán, keeping construction prices down is key to maximizing the effect of the renovation support program. “If prices explode, then the HUF 6 million of support would only be worth half or even a quarter as much,” the PM said.
Responding to a question regarding last week’s EU summit in Brussels and the massive hate campaign launched against Hungary due to its child protection law, Prime Minister Orbán said that unfortunately “we are already accustomed to this.” This is the same anti-Hungary campaign we had to endure regarding migration, taxes on banks and multinational companies, and the utility price reduction program, the PM said.
Certain foreign politicians, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, follow what PM Orbán called an “Übermensch approach.” In PM Orbán’s view, these people “do not consider what they are allowed to say about the people and laws of another country. They behave like colonists — they want to dictate what laws should take effect in another country, they want to tell us how to live our lives […].”
“There is an ongoing debate in Europe about who should be involved in the sexual education of children. In Western Europe, they decided that NGOs and other civil organization-like entities can carry out education and sensitization campaigns about family models other than the traditional family,” Prime Minister Orbán said. According to the prime minister, while the relationship between two people who are over the age of 18 must be protected as a private affair, the same cannot apply to children.
Parents, and only parents, should have the right to decide about the education of their children. “We acknowledge parents’ right to decide what their kids are exposed to,” the prime minister said, adding that this right is present in the constitution of several European countries and even several EU documents.