The government will not change its position on the issue of child protection, Kocsis said after a meeting of the ruling parties. He insisted that Brussels was “blackmailing Hungary by withholding recovery money” and vowed to hold a popular vote “on these issues”. “The Hungarian people will decide the matter,” the Fidesz politician said. Referring to the government’s decision to fund programmes that would ordinarily receive EU monies until the funding is made available, he said it was “the right thing to launch our own programmes during the transition period.” Kocsis said that at the group meeting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said central European countries were visibly doing better than the rest of the bloc in making an economic recovery, noting that Hungary’s economy was likely to grow by an annual 7% or more this year.
Meanwhile, commenting on the 2022 general election campaign, he said the fact that Ferenc Gyurcsány, the former Socialist prime minister, was actively involved on the left would “fire up” the conservative base rather than discouraging it.