The Government would like for the Hungarian people themselves to have the right to decide on issues determining their future, and to prevent Brussels from engaging in stealthy legislation in other areas, similar to the issue of immigration, Csaba Dömötör said at a press conference.

The Minister of State at the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister reiterated that in his Friday year in review, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán identified the five basic pillars of the new national policy which are about the maintenance and reinforcement of national sovereignty.

We must protect the reduction of household utility charges, we must reinforce the legal border closure with a view to the management of the migration crisis, we must ensure a higher degree of transparency in the case of organisations financed from abroad, and we must additionally keep within national competence our fiscal policy and the tools which are designed to promote job creation, Mr Dömötör said mentioning the most important areas in which the Government will expect tough debates both with Brussels and the Hungarian opposition parties during the period to come.

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He highlighted that the Cabinet is expecting conflicts in the field of energy policy because the Brussels proposal on the energy union would prohibit the option of state price regulation which would amount to the cancellation of the reduction of household utility charges.

Mr Dömötör took the view that the Government is additionally expecting the prolonged continuation of the migration crisis. Meanwhile, a great many illegal immigrants abuse EU law and “freely roam the streets of Europe”, several of them committing brutal attacks as well. According to the Cabinet, this involves severe security risks and results in an untenable situation. With regard to this, it is necessary to tighten the regulations regarding the legal border closure, as well as the regulations relating to the movement and detention of migrants, he said, adding that illegal immigrants would be required to await the decision on their asylum applications in a designated place of residence by the border.

The Minister of State at the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister underlined that, due to these circumstances, the Government is prepared for the fact that it will come under heavy attack from Brussels also this year. They insist, however, that the borders of Hungary, above all, and of Europe must be protected.

The third pillar of the new national policy is related to transparency, Mr Dömötör continued. He said that there are a number of political activist groups operating in Hungary which mostly receive their funding from abroad, under conditions which are not transparent. “These are, in fact, agent organisations”, the Minister of State said, in whose view every Hungarian citizen has the right to know which organisations are funded from abroad and how much funding they receive from abroad. “We must put an end to the non-transparent foreign attempts to influence events in Hungary”, he said.

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Mr Dömötör remarked that, in this context, the Cabinet is currently studying the relevant Western-European and US legal practices, and further drew attention to the fact that a law has been in force in the United States for decades which requires so-called foreign agents to register and to comply with a variety of transparency requirements.

The Cabinet’s representative also told the press that the idea of raising fiscal policies to a community level is emerging within the European Union with increasing frequency. According to Mr Dömötör, this is why the Hungarian Government’s decision to significantly reduce the corporation tax may have been criticised earlier. “We take the view that taxation must remain within national competence, we have a great deal to protect”, he said, mentioning as examples the benefits of family taxation and the reduction of employer taxes with which the Government is seeking to promote pay rises.

Mr Dömötör stressed that employment policy is a further key pillar of the new national policy. “It is our fundamental interest that Hungary should continue to have the right to determine how it wishes to promote the creation of jobs”, he said, remarking that the Hungarian job creation programme has operated successfully for a long time, and as part of it, 31 companies in Hungary have been given non-repayable grants.

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“As expected, the European Commission will target this programme”, he added.

In answer to a question, the Minister of State described the court judgement passed on Monday on the 2016 case of police chiefs as outrageously lenient. Several people sustained life-long injuries, and “we also know that Ferenc Gyurcsány instructed the leaders of the law enforcement agencies in person to beat up the demonstrators and to use rubber bullets”, he said. He added: he finds it important that the administration of justice should give “a reassuring and proportionate answer” to all the outstanding questions.

The uncut version of the video recordings made at the event can be downloaded in the Press Room.

(MTI/kormany.hu)