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PM: ‘Together, we can extend the good years’ in Hungarian agriculture

Hungarian agriculture can extend its recent period of prosperity despite the expectations of tough years ahead for the global economy, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a rousing speech on Thursday at the National Delegate Assembly of the National Chamber of Agriculture in Budapest.

The Hungarian leader acknowledged the current difficult situation being felt across the agriculture sector in several Western countries and the wider world, but vowed that through good governance this will never happen in Hungary.

“There are no austerity measures here, people are not paying the price of the crisis with agriculture,” Orbán told the assembly.

The prime minister acknowledged that his governing party Fidesz had secured the support of the Hungarian countryside in the general election recently held on April 3, and accepted voters now had “legitimate expectations of the new government” which has an obligation towards Hungary’s rural communities.

“The government must fulfill the needs of the countryside and serve its interests,” Orbán added.

In the face of a global food supply crisis as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has seen market prices skyrocket, the Hungarian prime minister said the only solution to the problem was for the country to unite and support its agriculture sector to deliver for the country, as Hungary’s economy and its agricultural performance is intrinsically linked.

On the broader matter of the economy, Orbán explained that the current situation in Europe is complex and unpredictable, with the Russo-Ukrainian conflict changing the political landscape considerably. The prime minister urged for “strategic calm” at this time, warning that knee-jerk reactions by the government to rapidly changing developments could prove to be damaging.

As such, the government will remain fixated on the general principles of maintaining the budget deficit, cutting utilities, protecting the family support system, maintaining employment figures and protecting pensions, while reducing the national debt.

According to Orbán, the Visegrád nations had an opportunity to stay out of any European recession by implementing its own “smart economic policy.”

“If the Visegrad countries are able to set an independent path for themselves in a different way than Brussels, it is possible that they will stay out of the European recession,” Orbán told the assembly.

He added that despite the war on Hungary’s doorstep, the Hungarian economy has every chance of growing this year by 4-6 percent.

Photo credit: MTI