Regarding the municipal elections which will coincide with the June 9 European parliamentary ballot, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told Mandiner in an interview that “similarly to the majority of Budapest’s residents, I only have bad things to say about the mayor’s performance”. He likened Gergely Karácsony to a soccer player “who blames a missed penalty kick on their shoes or the grass”.
PM Orbán said the allied ruling parties were also the strongest political force in the capital and in Alexandra Szentkirályi, “Fidesz has found its long-term leader for Budapest”. Speaking about the issue of demography, the prime minister noted that though the government had made achievements in terms of trends, developments had stalled. “Demography policy is however not the same as family policy,” PM Orbán said, arguing that successful family policy could not be “measured by demographic indices”. The government, PM Orbán said, did not want “to pursue a demography policy based on migrants”. “We want to resolve this issue along the lines of principles set in national, Christian culture.” “If there is war, we have to spend 3% of GDP on security measures, if there isn’t, then only 2%, and it could resolve a large part of the problems if the difference could be spent on families,” the prime minister said.