The government’s measures will be sufficient to cover the costs necessary for the containment of the coronavirus epidemic and to restart the economy within the shortest possible time, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said on Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Sunday Paper’.

Gergely Gulyás stressed that the containment of the epidemic requires major resources from the budget and unity from the country. The cabinet set up an epidemic containment fund in the spirit of starting economy measures within its own agencies first, he said, pointing out that most of the funds, HUF 922 billion in total will be withdrawn from ministries, but parties and local governments, too, will be required to make a contribution to the containment effort.

He highlighted that those sectors will likewise have to foot part of the costs of the containment effort and the restarting of the economy which contribute to the growth of the economy and make significant profits. Therefore, the government believes it is important that multinational supermarket chains and banks, too, should contribute to our shared responsibility, Mr Gulyás pointed out.

The Minister said at present HUF 663 billion is available in the epidemic containment fund; however, this is an allocation without an upper limit, given that there can be no financial obstacles to the country’s health care containment effort. Additionally, there is HUF 1,345 billion available in the economy protection fund which will serve to restart the economy, he added.

Mr Gulyás said it is especially important to alleviate the problems which people are now faced with, primarily when they lose their jobs. Therefore, preserving jobs and creating new ones is the top priority, he stated.

He stressed that while according to official statistics, the number of job-seekers has risen by 30,000, the situation is regrettably much worse than that which is underlined by the fact that fewer than 50,000 of the earlier 70,000 vacant jobs are now available, and since the beginning of April, more than four thousand persons have lost their jobs daily.

The government sincerely hopes that even if it is unable to stop this process altogether, it will be able to moderate it and to create new jobs in large numbers after the epidemic, Mr Gulyás said.

He confirmed that in the present great national crisis they expect to forge some kind of national unity and political cooperation. Therefore, the Minister repeatedly asked the opposition not to engage in party-political debates at this time.

“Let us put aside our political differences, and everyone should do everything they can to prevent the spread of the virus to the greatest possible extent,” he said.

Mr Gulyás highlighted that the government had joined the countries which had asked the European Commission in an open letter to investigate the measures adopted by Member States in the state of danger in order to underline that the accusations levelled at Hungary were completely without foundation.

The Minister pointed out that Hungary was among the ‘top students’ regarding all the issues mentioned by the signatories to the letter. He mentioned as an example that it was the European Parliament that had shut down, not the Hungarian Parliament which was debating laws also at present and where the government could be held accountable.

He highlighted that the Hungarian cabinet supports all international comparative investigations because they will reveal that Hungarian constitutional institutions are working. “According to the Constitution, the functioning of Parliament cannot be restricted even during this period, while the functioning of the Constitutional Court must also remain ongoing, and general parliamentary elections and municipal elections cannot be postponed,” Mr Gulyás listed, also pointing out that they have had enough of double standards.

(MTI)