A sovereign economic policy “is the prerequisite for everything”, the prime minister’s cabinet chief said at the Tranzit Festival in Tihany, at lake Balaton, on Friday, adding that “there is no stability” without such an economic strategy. In his talk dubbed “Chances for the Hungarian economy in times of peril” Antal Rogán reviewed the economic achievements of the past 15 years. Shifting to a work-based society with a matching tax policy, increasing assistance to families and capping the price of public utilities have reduced the number of people living in poverty by 1.1 million since 2015, he said. Those achievements cannot be retained without a sovereign policy, he added. Rogán suggested that one of the factors determining Hungary’s chances was how soon the war in Ukraine could be ended, and said the draft for a “peace budget” was at the ready. The draft was designed to double tax benefits for families, increase subsidies for first-time home owners, increase assistance to small companies, raise minimum wages and provide loans to young Hungarians in vocational training, Rogán said.
Rogán slammed the European Union for its “usual demands of a liberal economic philosophy”, under which Hungary should remove the caps from public utility prices, increase the corporate tax, introduce a two-bracket tax system, increase the property tax, scrap thirteenth-month pension, raise the retirement age and “introduce a policy of constant austerity”.