Monthly newsletter Hungary – October 2022
National consultation on war sanctions
In October, Hungarians will be able to express their opinion on the issue of energy sanctions at a national consultation. At the start of the fall season of the Hungarian National Assembly on September 26, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Hungary would be the first country in Europe to consult the population about the sanctions.
In view of the impending global recession, Europe's economy is at risk of collapse and Western sanctions have turned the local Russian-Ukrainian conflict into a global economic war. “But they forgot to consult the European citizens who will have to pay the price for the sanctions!” – explained the Hungarian Prime Minister.
Novel about abortion
On September 15, a government decree from the Minister of the Interior, Sándor Pintér, responsible, among other things, for health, came into force, amending the previous decree implementing Law No. 79 of 1992 on the Protection of Fetal Life. The essence of the change is that a woman who decides to have an abortion must provide a report issued by a gynecologist stating that the doctor gave her a clear indication of the vital signs of the fetus.
The Ethics Committee of the Hungarian Medical Association said it supported the change because “protection of life is a fundamental principle of medicine” and life begins at conception. In addition to numerous representatives of the government parties, support for the regulation also came from the right-wing extremist Mi Hazánk. Criticism of the amendment came primarily from citizen activists who complained that the decision was made without consultation and social debate.
The EU Commission wants to cut budget funding for Hungary
Due to alleged deficiencies in Hungary's public procurement system, the European Commission proposed on September 18, 2022 to withhold payments of around 7.5 billion euros from the EU budget to the country. EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said that money from the EU budget in Hungary was not adequately protected against misuse. This would be the first time that the conditionality mechanism would be applied, after the rule of law procedure was initiated in April 2021.
Furthermore, the Commission is currently blocking several billion euros in Corona aid. For a cut, the proposal would have to be supported by at least 15 member states, representing at least 65 percent of the population. Poland has already announced that it will vote against the proposal. Hungary has until November 19, 2022 to dispel the doubts about the rule of law raised by the Commission.
The Hungarian government showed a willingness to compromise; two legislative packages to combat corruption were submitted in the week after the EU Commission's proposal. Johannes Hahn also praised the commitments from Budapest: “Hungary has actually moved” – summed up the commissioner.
Price freezes extended
In mid-September, Chancellery Minister Gergely Gulyás announced the extension of the fuel price freeze, the capping of the prices of important foodstuffs and the continuation of the program to reduce additional costs until at least December 31st of this year. The interest rate freeze will remain in place for another six months, until June 30. According to Gulyás, the “Brussels sanctions” made these steps necessary. If the EU were to lift the energy sanctions, Gulyás said, gas and electricity prices would halve the very next day.
Previously, on September 8, Gulyás announced that the Hungarian government would order a 25 percent gas cut for state institutions and state-owned companies - with the exception of hospitals and social institutions - to be achieved by saving on heating costs.
MCC opens educational center in Brussels
At the semester opening ceremony of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium on September 16th it became public: Dr. Zoltán Szalai, General Director of the MCC and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Balázs Orbán explained that the talent factory will open a training center in Brussels from October. Not only will conferences and book presentations be held there, but young students will also be given the opportunity to get to know the headquarters of the European Union and NATO as part of study trips. The director of the new MCC branch will be the renowned political scientist Prof. Dr. em. Werner Patzelt together with Prof. Dr. Be Frank Füredi.
This year, MCC began the academic year with a record number of almost 6,000 students at 24 training locations across the Carpathian Basin.
What does King Charles III lead? to the Hungarian villages of Transylvania?
King Charles III is a very welcome guest in Transylvania. His great-great-grandmother Countess Klaudia Rhédey was born in Erdőszentgyörgy/Sankt Georgen auf der Heide, which was then still part of Hungary, where a recently opened exhibition in the Rhédey Castle there presents the work of the British royal family in Transylvania. Before the pandemic, Charles visited Transylvania almost every year, where he owns ten properties, four of them in Zalánpatak in Szeklerland, which is predominantly inhabited by Hungarians.
He acquired it through the Prince of Wales Foundation and the Mihai Eminescu Trust, which is heavily involved in the renovation and repair of cultural monuments throughout Romania and thus significantly boosts tourism in the region. In all the villages that King Charles has visited, locals agree that he has done much more as a voice for rural tourism than the current Romanian tourism minister.
But now that the Transylvanian villages have learned of his coronation, many fear that not only will he be able to come to Transylvania much less often, but when he does, he will only be able to come with a horde of bodyguards. As a “simple prince” he probably won’t be able to take a walk through the beautiful landscape again.
To the source:
The German-Hungarian Institute for European Cooperation is intended to provide a forum for academic, scientific and political dialogue between Germany and Hungary and to familiarize decision-makers and interested specialist audiences from both countries with topics, debates, processes, thought patterns and ideas from the other country. The aim is to achieve greater understanding, communication and constructive cooperation by objectifying the German-Hungarian discourse and thus renew our Europe together.
We would like to support this goal and publish excerpts with the kind permission of the authors. The complete issue can be found here as a PDF. The institute's website you can reach here.
