900,000 Hungarians participate in National Consultation amid economic and policy debates

Around 900,000 Hungarians have filled out National Consultation questionnaires so far, and responses are still coming in thick and fast, Balázs Hidvéghi, the parliamentary state secretary of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office told public broadcaster M1 on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands participate in National Consultation

He said Hungarians knew “there’s so much at stake” and that it was important to express their opinion.

Regarding next year’s budget, Hidvéghi noted that the final vote would take place at the end of next week, and the government wanted to take people’s opinions into account in view of new economic policy measures and trade neutrality.

The government, he added, saw economic policymaking purely in terms of Hungarian interests and strengthening Hungarian families and Hungarian businesses instead of bowing to expectations and regulations set from outside the country.

Hidvéghi referred to signs in Europe of an economic cold war emerging alongside poor EU policymaking which harmed Europe’s competitiveness. Brussels, he added, had imposed ham-fisted green policies with unrealistic targets, putting European industry — especially its car industry — in a tough situation. “And they want to introduce energy restrictions,” he said, insisting that sanctions against Russia were largely to blame.

Meanwhile, he called the recent meeting in Budapest of the Patriots for Europe EP group had been “very important”, saying that representatives from various countries had agreed that European interest “must be put first” and that the diversity of European nation-states must be preserved.

Further, they agreed that European competitiveness must be restored and boosted, which meant strengthening European industry and small and medium-sized enterprises.

“We don’t need policies at odds with reality but policies that start out from the reality taking European interest into account,” he said.

Also, Hidvéghi said the declaration adopted on migration was “identical to the Hungarian position”.

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