“The 2 October referendum is not a party issue, but a national issue, and this is something that the electorate fully understands”, Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár said at the 64th Governmentinfo press conference, which he held jointly with Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács.
The Minister highlighted: “A referendum is democracy’s strongest institution, and so the quota referendum is also important because it provides an opportunity for people to voice their opinion”.
“We’re asking everyone to make use of the opportunity afforded by the referendum, because people must decide on their own lives, this is what they must consider”, Mr. Lázár said. “According to the Government’s opinion Brussels’ plan for automatic distribution is contrary to the interests of every Hungarian, and accordingly we are asking the electorate to vote no”, the Minister said.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has asked Minister of Justice László Trócsányi to prepare a report for the Cabinet on the consequences of the referendum, he confirmed. The Government will assess the result of the referendum at next week’s Cabinet meeting, he told the press.
The European Commission wants to legalise illegal migration
According to Mr. Lázár, the European Commission would make illegal migration legal and turn this illegal and unorderly state of affairs into legal migration. “This week EU leaders confirmed that they are insisting on their original proposal and in fact want to accelerate its implementation and break down the resistance of countries that do not agree”, he said.
“In contrast, the Government wants to stop immigration, not organise it. According to the standpoint of the Central European countries there is no need for immigration and compulsory resettlement is out of the question”, he said.
The Minister told reporters: “Hungary’s voters are not anti-EU; they have a problem with Brussels and are not prepared to accept the fact that the European Commission wants to strip Hungary of its right to decide who can live here. This is a question of sovereignty and this is a right that Hungary cannot forego”, he declared.
The electorate understands the importance of the vote
“The electorate precisely understand and feel the importance of the vote. Hungary must be the one to say who can enter the country, who can reside here and who can be a Hungarian citizen, and this is something we must insist on”, he declared. “The Commission wants to remove immigration issues from the national sphere of competence and make them the sphere of authority of Brussels”, he added.
According to the Minister, it is not all the same how many people go out to vote at the referendum because it is important that we agree on at least this issue and have the opportunity for national solidarity and cooperation on this fundamental issue. “If not, it will weaken Hungary’s power and voice in its battles with Brussels”, he said.
Mr. Lázár recalled: “Last summer hundreds of thousands of people travelled across the country and at the time it was impossible to perform controls, because the immigrants refused to cooperate, also making impossible to register them”. “The fact that it has now been proven that several terrorists came through Hungary or managed to get into Europe after spending some time here is not unrelated to this”, he explained. “The fact that the border is now closed is sufficient to guarantee full vetting, but if someone arrives with counterfeit papers we cannot be fully sure of weeding them out. But the risk has certainly been reduced to a minimum thanks to border control”, he said.
The Minister told the press “The Government understands Austria’s concern, but the parties have agreed that Austria will wait to see the effect of Hungary’s border closure and decide on building its own fence accordingly”. “There is a chance that we could avoid the construction of the fence, because we are currently not contributing to an increase in the number of illegal migrants living in Austria”, he said.
Guarding the fence is Hungarian solidarity
Mr. Lázár said the fact that Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries would like to extradite the 148 thousand migrants registered in Hungary back to the country is an impending danger. “The Hungarian Government, however, has refused to accept them because these people entered the territory of the European Union in Greece”, de declared, objecting to the fact that the Scandinavian countries, who are the richest in Europe, want to send immigrants to Hungary, which is much poorer than they are.
In reply to a question concerning Hungarian solidarity, he said: “Our solidarity is the construction of the fence and guarding it daily”. The Minister said he thought it would be unrealistic for Hungary to be asked to assume a Western level of financial solidarity.
In reply to a suggestion that according to President of Jobbik Gábor Vona, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would have to resign if the referendum was not valid, the Minister responded: “Dream on”.
In reply to a question concerning whether it was possible that government office employees were telephoning people to encourage them to take part in the referendum, Mr. Lázár said he absolutely denies that employees are doing anything of this kind during office hours. “However, the Government is not concerned with what people do as private individuals outside their working hours; it is not forbidden for people to have standpoints or opinions”, he pointed out.
The Minister also spoke about the fact that every government window will be open and on duty to help people with missing personal documents identify themselves. “There are no government adverts in government service windows or district offices, only the call to participate in the referendum published by the National Election Office”, he said.
A Government Action Plan will be developed to increase competitiveness
The Government will be developing an Action Plan in the coming weeks and months in the interests of improving the Hungarian economy’s competitiveness”, Mr. Lázár told the press. According to a recent survey by the World Economic Forum, Hungary has fallen six places in the global competitiveness rankings and accordingly is currently the world’s 69th most competitive economy, and 25th within the European Union.
According to Mr. Lázár, we must discover and examine the reasons for the drop in competitiveness. The National University of Public Service will also be involved in the task.
“In V4 comparison, Hungary is in a similar situation to Slovakia, while the Czechs and particularly the Polish are doing better with regard to competitiveness”, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said, adding that “we have much to learn from the Polish people”. The Minister said he was certain that increasing competitiveness required the reorganisation of tax procedures and a reduction of state bureaucracy.
Reporting on Hungarian economic data, Mr. Lázár also drew attention to the fact that economic results are fragile, because “if Hungary has to bow to the will of Brussels” then that will have “repercussions” on the social expenditure side. “Because of there is resettlement then we would also have to take care of those who are relocated here and provide them with housing, jobs, and healthcare and social services”, he said.
“The credit rating upgrade, falling unemployment and increasing employment will all be in vain if the country has to shoulder a burden that is not in the interests of the electorate”, said Mr. Lázár, according to whom it is difficult to justify the fact that “’Germany invited in the migrants, and now we have to maintain them”. “Hungary rejects this behaviour according to which Germany organises immigration, selects the ones it needs and then distributes the rest among Europe’s poorer regions”, he said.
Online cash registers to become mandatory from 2017
On the subjects of this week’s meeting of the Economic Cabinet, Mr. Lázár confirmed that the Government had decided to introduce the mandatory use of online cash registers from 1 January 2017 instead of September of this year as previously planned. In explanation he said the Government was giving those involved with the technical realisation of the measure more time to better prepare. The Cabinet also reviewed all of the IT development programmes currently ongoing at the tax office.
With regard to other decisions, the Minister told the press that the Government had authorised several local government loans, decided to put a bill before parliament on amending the legislation concerning the reintroduction of the institution of independent mortgages, and listened to a report on preparations for next year’s FINA Water World Championships in Budapest, which are progressing according to schedule.
With relation to last week’s bomb blast on Teréz Körút in Budapest, Mr. Lázár declared: “The Government rejects acts of violence in the strongest of terms”. He indicated that the Prime Minister had ordered the Minister of Interior to do everything possible to apprehend the perpetrator of perpetrators. “The whole country is standing behind the injured police officers, and this is particularly important considering the fact that 27 years ago the Police were still an instrument of the dictatorship”, he added.
In reply to a question concerning the Budapest bus tender, Mr. Lázár said. “The public procurement tender issued by the Municipality of Budapest excluded several potential applicants; the public procurement was a market- and competition-restricting one, and accordingly the Public Procurement Arbitration Board halted the tender and now a new tender must be issued, or the errors corrected”. “Realistically, the renovation of the metro cannot even begin until next summer”, he indicated.
“The package on retail policy is expected to be put before the Government for a first reading on 5 October,” Mr. Lázár said also in reply to a question, citing the reason for the change the fact that the European Commission had given the green light to several procurement issues, for instance with regard to the tobacco supply system, and accordingly the question has arisen that perhaps it would be also possible to centrally supply pharmacies, and such a proposal will indeed be put forward.
In reply to another question, Mr. Lázár also spoke about the fact that there are contradictory claims regarding whether or not there are genetically modified products in Hungary. “Such products may enter the country with imported foods, for instance genetically modified soy could be present, and it is difficult to weed this kind of thing out in a customs-free environment”, he said.
(MTI)
