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Vona: Year 2016 unsuccessful for Hungary
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Budapest, December 21 (MTI) – The year 2016 has been a bad one for Hungary, opposition Jobbik leader Gábor Vona said on Wednesday.
The government has failed to solve any of the country’s serious problems, including improving health care and education, obliterating corruption or reversing the emigration of Hungarians, Vona told a press conference assessing 2016.
He said the national consultation started by his party had been successful, adding that some 200,000 households had taken part in it.
Addressing the state of Hungary’s health care and education, which had been key topics in Jobbik’s national consultation, Vona said the biggest issues in those two sectors were not structural ones but rather that they were both underfinanced. He said this was related to corruption, arguing that corruption drained vital resources from the state budget.
Vona also assessed the migration situation, which he said had reached a turning point in 2016. While the government had “swept every issue under migration” throughout the year, by the autumn it had become clear that it was impossible to govern on this issue alone, Vona said. He said Hungary was in need of “full and real protection” which also “rids the country of residency bonds”.
The party’s board will discuss the issue of presidential nomination in January, he said, adding that Jobbik was sticking to its position that voters should be able to elect the president directly. Vona called President Janos Ader an “appointee of the prime minister”, adding that the nomination of Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog as Áder’s successor would be “another downhill step”.
He welcomed the move to raise minimum wages, but warned against being “overly excited” by the increase, arguing that the issue of low minimum wages had needed to be addressed anyway. Vona criticised the government’s payroll tax cuts, arguing that it would only benefit corporations and that the government should have reduced payroll taxes for small and medium-sized companies.