No help from Brussels: here is Orbán’s extraordinary announcement!
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday met the group working to save troubled steelmaker Dunaferr, led by the region’s representative, Lajos Mészáros of Fidesz.
Orbán said in a video on Facebook that the government was working on saving the plant in Dunaújváros, in central Hungary, “driven into the ground by its previous owners, company leadership and Brussels sanctions”. At Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, the government decided to cover the wages of Dunaferr workers for the next six months, Orbán said. The costs will come to some 16 billion forints (EUR 41.0m), he said.
Orbán and Mészáros:
The government is now working to find a “dependable, reliable owner” that can take over the steelworks when the six-month period comes to an end, Orbán said. Dunaferr was placed under liquidation in December, after a plea for government support in September. Low steel prices paired with the rise in energy prices, supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine put the company in a situation with which it is “unable to cope alone”, Dunaferr said at the time.
Below you may find a video of the announcement. The text says Hungary can expect no help from Brussels, only sanctions. “The cabinet will pay the salaries of the Dunaferr employees for the next six months”, the post goes. Viktor Orbán promises in the last sentence that they would protect the workplaces and the Hungarian families.
In the video, Orbán is the only one who speaks, MP Mészáros remains silent despite he was introduced as the head of the team coming up with the proposal about how to save the steelworks. Nevertheless, the idea is quite simple: the government pays the wages while they try to find a new, reliable owner in the next half year.
Read alsoNo help from Brussels: here is Orbán’s extraordinary announcement!
Source: MTI, Facebook