According to the Prime Minister, the new law on electoral procedure "will obviously have" a constitutional check by the Constitutional Court and "this is a good thing". Viktor Orbán spoke about the issue on Kossuth Rádio's 180 minutes program on Friday.

Concerning the decision of the Constitutional Court related to the residence of homeless people in public areas, the Prime Minister declared that the Government would hold negotiations with the leaders of local governments and it would most probably also consult with the people. He emphasized that the state has recently become capable of maintaining as many shelters as the number of homeless people living in Hungary.

The Prime Minister stated that the Government is working on the reduction of overhead expenses, which it plans to achieve by reducing the profits of companies operating within the field and leaving the money generated with the people.

According to Viktor Orbán, public services should not be used for profit-making activities; this sector does not belong to profit, adding that he accepts that profit must be generated by energy companies, but that profit must be lowered to the minimum level in the case of middlemen squeezed between the consumer and producer.

Regarding the taxation system he pointed out that the current system is the system of the new Hungarian model, where there are now crisis taxes or temporary elements, because the current elements will remain part of the system in the long term. He confirmed that the Government does not plan to reduce the taxes on banks, the energy sector, and companies who are in a monopoly position, but it will reduce personal income tax, contributions on labour, and the burdens of those employees with the greatest difficulties.

He said that Hungary has a solid base concerning financial matters, as well as regarding unemployment; the debt has been reduced, the deficit was kept under the desired level and the number of births increased by 4 percent, adding that this all demonstrates that the Government has succeeded in reversing negative tendencies.

The Prime Minister expressed that the successful economies of the coming years would be identified according to unemployment, indebtedness and deficit levels, in which sense Hungary is in a good position.

Regarding the take-over of municipal debt, he declared that the costs of the measure have been produced by the Hungarian economy and the Hungarian people, so the settlements are not being bailed out from new credit. He added that after the bail-out those with foreign currency credit and the municipalities, the government will focus on helping indebted Hungarian companies next year.

In relation to the next seven-year EU budget, he said that the fact that no agreement has been reached is no reason for panic and desperation. He added that the principle represented by the Hungarian Government at the negotiations is that the new budget "should help those less-developed countries that have suffered as a result of communism catch up to the Western European countries with more favourable histories that developed without communism".

(Prime Minister’s Office)