Tusvanyos – Opposition parties slam Orbán’s speech

The Respect and Freedom (Tisza) party said the prime minister’s speech had been about “Budapest-centric global politics” rather than the problems of the Hungarian people. The party criticised Orbán for failing to mention the state of the health-care and education sectors, “the three million people living below the subsistence level and the hundreds of thousands who have fled abroad”.

The Democratic Coalition (DK) said Orbán’s politics wasn’t “building, but losing Hungary” and endangered the Hungarian people. “The blabber about a national strategy doesn’t obscure the strategic weakening of Hungary that is a consequence of Orban’s running amok historically and politically,” DK said in a statement.

The Socialist Party criticised the speech for not mentioning “the government’s misguided economic policy, the one billion euro loan taken from China, high inflation and the high public debt”. The party said it hoped Orbán “was not laying the groundwork for pulling Hungary out of the European Union”.

Jobbik-Conservatives welcomed the prime minister’s announcement on doubling family tax breaks for children, but said their solution would be to increase the tax break each year by at least the previous year’s inflation rate.