Peter Magyar Blames Orban for Hungary’s Budget Crisis

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar told an extraordinary session of parliament on Monday that his government had inherited a budget in a “dramatically dire” state from the previous administration of Viktor Orban.

“I have no words to describe the game of Russian roulette that Orban's government called budget policy. What they did is professionally, politically and morally unacceptable”, Magyar said.

According to the prime minister, the previous government had knowingly based the budget on inaccurate figures by including European Union funds that Hungary could not access. He said every unsupported billion euro meant money that was not available for teachers’ and police officers’ salaries, energy-efficiency and water-management projects, pensions and child protection.

Magyar also accused Fidesz of putting its own political interests ahead of governing. Reviewing his administration’s first 50 days in office, he pointed to the creation of independent ministries, a program to improve air conditioning in hospitals, child protection measures, corruption investigations, cuts to lawmakers’ salaries, the adoption of anti-corruption and media legislation and efforts to unlock frozen EU funds.

(tasr, bak)