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Hungary’s performance in the past twelve years, “and especially last year’s economic output”, are proof that “the Hungarian model remains effective even in times of the greatest challenges”, the minister of foreign affairs and trade told business leaders on Tuesday.
Péter Szijjártó, speaking at the 23rd summit of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum, said the government applied “specifically Hungarian solutions” to resolving problems, according to a foreign ministry statement.
He said that while this approach had been “sharply criticised both within Hungary and from abroad”, its solutions “have invariably proved successful”.
Concerning the challenges the government has faced since 2010, Szijjártó mentioned fallout of the 2008-2009 global crisis, the government’s response to which was to cut taxes, launch a broad programme to promote investments, and introduce its policy of opening to the East.
Referring to the migration crisis, Szijjártó said that despite “extremely serious attacks” against the government’s introduction of strict border controls and its migration policy in general, Hungary and other Visegrad Group countries cooperated to stop mandatory migrant quotas from being introduced across Europe. Those quotas “could have led to a disaster”, he added.
On another subject, Szijjártó said the government had made a strategic decision early in 2021 to resolve the shortage of coronavirus vaccines by importing Eastern ones, helping a vaccination drive, which meant the country could reopen its economy two months before the rest of Europe.
He also slammed European institutions for “making licencing vaccines a political issue”, calling this “one of their greatest mistakes ever”.
Addressing the economic impact of the pandemic, Szijjártó said the opposition had advocated “financing unemployment” by providing benefits using foreign loans. Conversely, the government used its resources to combat unemployment and “launched the greatest investment promotion programme of all times”.
Meanwhile, Szijjártó said Hungary’s “sovereign foreign policy has proven that it is possible to remain a faithful ally and still maintain pragmatic and civilised relations with countries in the East such as Russia”. He insisted that “the loudest critics of China and Russia” made the greatest profits on cooperation with those countries.
Referring to the Ukraine-Russia situation, Szijjártó reaffirmed Hungary’s support for negotiations and cooperation between the two sides.
On the subject of the April 3 parliamentary election, Szijjártó said if the ruling parties won another term, the government would carry on cutting taxes and red tape while maintaining its policy of attracting foreign investment to the country.
featured image via Zoltán Máthé/MTI