Viktor Orbán: Hungarian model working

The Hungarian model is working “and we Hungarians don’t plan on replacing it”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a European Union social summit in Gothenburg on Friday.

He said the Hungarian government often hears “many good ideas” about meeting labour market challenges, “but the success of our policy is not dependent on the quality of those ideas”. The key to success is whether governments can turn those ideas into a working model.

Hungary was deep in crisis before 2010, Orbán said, but the government created a Hungarian model.

He said each country should view its own models as assets, “and we Hungarians don’t intend to replace our own model either”.

Orbán explained that the Hungarian model rested on three “pillars”. One of those pillars was to set the objective of full employment, and building a work-based society. Secondly, he said that “we don’t want to resolve demographic or labour problems from the outside, through immigration”. Thirdly, the Hungarian government has adopted a “flexible” attitude in shaping labour and tax regulations, as well as introducing dual education, he said.

In 2010 Hungary’s unemployment rate was 12.5 percent, as opposed to 4 percent today, while the economy was in a 5 or 6 percent recession and the country has a growth of 4 percent now, Orbán said. He added that the budget deficit has been kept under 3 percent of GDP.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI