“Every element of the Hungarian Government’s anti-migration attitude can be derived from its politics”, State Secretary for International Communications and Relations Zoltán Kovács said in London.

Mr. Kovács took part in a press discussion at the Hungarian Embassy in London with the participation of Hungarian and British journalists. “The driving force behind the strategy for the restructuring of the Hungarian economy is also that the economy should not depend on migration, but should rely on the resources available within Central Europe”, he said.

“There is no plan to provide for the numerical demand posed by the job market with hundreds of thousands of people arriving from somewhere else”, he stated.

According to Mr. Kovács, the Hungarian Government has decided that the economic era characterised by cheap labour is at an end, and an employment environment must be created that is characterised by higher added value content and higher professional skill requirements.

The issue of migration, and the problems derived from it, are an excellent illustration and facilitate the understanding of the Hungarian Government’s standpoint on practically all issues relating to the European Union and domestic politics, the State Secretary said.

“Decisions relating to several areas, including demographics, social institutions, social measures and institutional policy, can be derived from the Hungarian Government’s extremely forthright anti-immigration stance”, Mr. Kovács said on Monday at the press conference in London.

According to the State Secretary labour shortages and the structural problems derived from them may be responded to with migration from external countries, but there is another solution to increasingly restrictive demographic problems: the creation of an environment that enable the birth of more children in Hungarian families, “and this is the path we have chosen”.

“Over the past eight years the Hungarian Government has developed a system in which the sum of the various benefits provided to families exceeds 4 percent of the gross national product (GDP)”, he added. This is one of the highest levels of funding amongst the developed economies that are part of the OECD group, Mr. Kovács said.

With relation to the amendment of the Labour Code, the State Secretary said the amendment fully conforms to European norms. “In most Western European countries, the thresholds and/or suggested limits currently in force for overtime are higher than the level determined in the Hungarian legislative amendment”, he added.

“All accusations according to which the amendment of the labour Code is aimed against employees, or which claim that it includes employment regulations that are unknown or unusual in Western Europe, are simply lies and have absolutely nothing to do with the facts”, Mr. Kovács said.

According to the State Secretary, this was also not the reason for the recent protests, but they were part of the European Parliament election campaign that is already well underway. “Poll data also indicates that the Hungarian opposition is more fragmented than ever, and obviously needs to attract attention and reorganise itself. To this end it chose a topic, as well as an extremely abnormal manner for political demonstrations”, Mr. Kovács said at the press discussion in London on Monday.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)