Dobrev advocates ‘thousand-year dream’ of being part of Europe
When Hungarians supported the political regime change of 1989 they wanted to achieve that “prosperity is not conditional on snuggling up to the party state but on talent and hard work”, she said. Hungarians, their local governments, chambers and unions have wanted to be consulted when making decisions about their future rather than accept “decisions made over our head”, she said.
“We are at home in Europe … through joining the EU and NATO Hungarians wanted to achieve a decent, predictable, European life,” she said.
Dobrev insisted that since 2010 the country had “received as much European funding as would have made two countries rich”. “We could have adopted the euro, tidied up health care, and education,” she said. “There is no ‘sanctions-related’ inflation; what people pay in shops and at filling stations is the price for the Orban regime … the consequences of bad governance,” she said.
“Hungary has a future in Europe … even if the prime minister thinks that he has no more air in the EU and outside could be better; he can go but we will stay in Europe,” Dobrev said.