Orban: Welfare state thing of past

(MTI) – The welfare state system has exhausted its reserves and is doomed to failure, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in his address to the 25th Balvanyos summer university in Baile Tusnad (Tusnadfurdo) in central Romania on Saturday.

In his address, Orban insisted that the welfare state, with its amassed debt, is no longer a sustainable model for Western European societies. The prime minister said it was an obligation for incumbent leaders to set directions for the next 20-30 years, and warned against a “provincial copying of the West” which would “kill us”.

Orban dismissed concerns raised over Hungary’s developing ties with Russia, and said it was “our greatest problem” that over two-thirds of Hungary’s exports were directed at EU markets. He suggested that the ratio should be reduced to 50 percent, and the other half of the country’s export goods sold in “other places of the world”.

He said that what was now happening in the relationship between Russian and the western world was very bad for Hungary. It “would be in our interest” for Russia not to lose pace with western social development, he added.

On another subject, Orban said he disagreed with the US diplomatic principle of promoting human rights in the world. “Rather than reciting human rights theses, we should encourage actual, practical, and relations-based cooperation,” he said.

Concerning the South Stream gas pipeline project, the prime minister voiced concern that Russia may soon stop its gas supplies to Ukraine, which would block supplies to Europe. Hungary is interested in ensuring a way to supply gas even in such emergency situations, Orban said, adding that “we must not give up our interests in a conflict like this”.