Orbán: Why young Hungarians should stop renting and take HUF 50 million instead
Young Hungarians who take out subsidised loans in the Home Start Programme for first-time home buyers could save tens of thousands of forints a month compared to renting, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a weekly interview with public radio on Friday.
Orbán said young Hungarians who needed to cover the cost of their own housing would be prudent to take out the 3pc fixed-rate loans rather than paying for a rental as the repayments would build their wealth.
He added that the forint credit was secure, unlike the high-risk FX loans that banks and the Gyurcsany government had “tricked” people into taking out years earlier.
Addressing the economic impact of the scheme, Orbán said the construction of 10,000 homes could boost GDP by 1pc, according to conservative estimates, adding that new home builds could easily reach an annual 30,000-50,000. He noted that the Home Start Programme credit was available for resale and new homes alike.
The credit, up to HUF 50m (EUR 125,000), is available to all first-time home buyers, regardless of age or family status. The price of homes eligible for the scheme has been limited to HUF 100m for multidwelling units and HUF 150m for detached homes. Borrowers must make a down payment of 10pc.
Orbán: ‘Brussels wants to sweep issue of ethnic Hungarian forced conscription victim off the table’
The bureaucrats in Brussels “want to sweep the issue of a Hungarian victim who died during forced conscription in Ukraine off the table” because it goes against everything they say about Ukraine’s level of preparedness for EU membership, the prime minister said on Friday.
“We are not saying in Brussels that there is a Hungarian issue here, but that there is a European issue that has been sensed not only by Hungary because one of its citizens has been beaten to death by Ukrainians during forced conscription, but it is a European problem that others have sensed, too,” Viktor Orbán told public radio.
“It is an organisation from Strasbourg that has collected the relevant information and issued a comprehensive evaluation that states precisely the same thing as the Hungarian government,” he said. There were not only individual cases but a general practice, he added.
“In reality there is a manhunt under way,” Orbán said. “They call it conscription, forced conscription, but what happens is that people in charge of conscription hunt for those that they think can be immediately drafted into the Ukrainian army. If it does not go smoothly, they will do it by force.”
Orbán said the brutality was “embarrassing for the bureaucrats in Brussels”. “All they say in Brussels is that Ukraine has made great advances in the areas of human rights, administration of justice and the fight against corruption,” he said. “What they see is that Ukraine is not only ready but beyond ready for European Union membership. Which has nothing to do with reality, if someone knows Ukraine because they happen to be a neighbour.”
Orbán: ‘This budget would ruin the EU’
The European Union’s proposed new budget for the next seven-year funding cycle would “ruin” the bloc, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday. “I don’t think this budget will even survive the next year.”
Orbán said “the only obvious aim” of the budget draft was to admit Ukraine to the EU and allocate the necessary financial resources for this “covertly, and some of it openly”. He added, however, that since there has been no decision on Ukraine’s EU accession, it was “not right” to set aside funds for this purpose.
The prime minister said the budget would also cut agricultural subsidies. “Are they making cuts because they consider the previous system wasteful, because they want to spend that money on something else and because they don’t consider agriculture a key sector anymore?” he asked. “What will happen to the millions of farmers whose work we’ve supported until now but won’t in the future?”
“So this budget would ruin the European Union,” Orbán said. “I don’t think this budget will even survive the next year; the commission will either have to withdraw it or backtrack one step at at a time and rewrite it.” “This is how I see it based on the reactions, the European countries simply won’t accept this budget from the Brussels bureaucracy,” he added.
Orbán: ‘At least 20 pc of Hungarians’ money would go to Ukraine’
At least 20 percent of Europeans’ money — and therefore 20 percent of Hungarians’ money – would be given to Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday, commenting on the EU’s post-2027 budget draft.
Several independent expert groups have identified and added up “hidden items in the budget categorised under the European Commission’s individual decisions”, and found that 20 percent, or possibly even 25 percent of the budget could be transferred to Ukraine, Orbán said in an interview to public radio.
“I can confidently say, not based on my own knowledge, but based on the knowledge of experts, that at least 20 percent of this budget is targeted at Ukraine,” Orbán said.
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