During the Fidesz party’s 29th congress on Sunday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that “In the coming months, we will see things that have not been seen before. It started with the 80,000-forint pension bonus paid to pensioners and will continue with the payment of the full 13th-month pension”.
The prime minister said young people will not be paying a personal income tax from January, the minimum wage will be 200,000 forints (EUR 548) and the minimum wage for skilled laborers will be 260,000 forints, adding that members of the military and the police will be paid a six-month bonus. Wages for nurses and those working in the social and cultural sectors will increase by 20 percent. Families will be refunded the tax paid in 2021.
“This has never happened before,” PM Orbán said. He said a government or a country cannot be successful if it does not have clear objectives. He said Fidesz had set clear goals twelve years ago which included creating one million jobs, restoring public order and public safety, protecting pensioners and the value of pensions, giving priority to families, restoring Budapest to its earlier fame, caring for Hungarian communities abroad and standing up for the interests of Hungarians in Brussels, among others.
“We took over a bankrupted country from the Socialists which we revived and put on a growth path,” PM Orbán said. “This is our moral asset, and this is why we are asking for the support of Hungarian voters again,” he said.
PM Orbán said that if Fidesz-KDNP can continue to govern, Hungary can make huge progress again in the next ten years and move up to join the group of developed countries. “We can eliminate poverty. We can become a country that is green, healthy, preserves its natural treasures, and a nation that lives longer and healthier lives,” PM Orbán said. Others recommend that Hungary should not strive for more, the prime minister said. “We cannot settle for what we have achieved because there are still Hungarians who are poor. There are still not enough children being born. Not everyone has a nice home. Not everyone has a high enough pay or pension. Quite simply, we need more. Why would we settle for what we have?” he said.
Photo credit: MTI