Hungarian PM evaluates 2014

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has held his 17th annual evaluation speech this Friday. He claimed that “our flag is flying high; everyone can see that. Everyone can see that we are a people’s party community, based on Christian-democratic foundations – the ideal, guiding star of which is a civic Hungary. I do not think that this will change in the next hundred years.”

The Prime Minister blamed modern-day migration
because “millions of Western European citizens feel that they have to work ever
more for less money, just to keep their jobs. Europe is facing questions which
can no longer be answered within the framework of liberal multiculturalism.”

Referring to the month of
February when there was more diplomatic activity than Hungary had seen in a
long time (including the Merkel and Putin visits), he claimed that “we should
not be afraid to fight for the justice of our cause. Believe me, the world
appreciates and acknowledges this. This month alone, one head of state, three
prime ministers and nine foreign ministers have visited our country. They had
good reason to come here, as Hungary has been placed on the map of European
politics.”

He said his government’s
achievements included higher value of wages and a rising employment level. He
claimed families were better off due to tax allowances and welfare contribution
allowances. Critics from the democratic opposition replied after the speech by
saying that the Prime Minister did not mention the inclusion in the employment
figure the number of public workers who are paid half the minimum wage and that
he ‘forgot’ to talk about the higher level of taxes and duties his government
has introduced in the past few years.

Viktor Orbán stressed that his
government will focus on everyday hard working people and their families because
Hungarians must be protected from being exploited and cheated. He justified his
government’s self-determination in its policies by saying that “we cannot be
successful if we can only be servants in our own country, if we have no
independence. National sovereignty is a fundamental question. National
sovereignty gives us a better life, which is our core interest.”