January 15, Election campaign events. Jobbik lawmaker s presser about. drug subsidies. KSH releases construction industry. prices for 2017 Nov

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1 EDITORS: PHOTO OF THE DAY UPCOMING EVENTS Election campaign events Jobbik lawmaker s presser about drug subsidies MTI/Tamás Kovács KSH releases construction industry prices for 2017 Nov British act at International Circus Festival in Budapest TOP STORY ORBÁN: WE WON T LET BRUSSELS DICTATE TO US Hungary s prime minister said that Hungary will not let Brussels dictate whom it should give safe haven to. If this fundamental principle is respected, we are prepared to participate in a refugee scheme, Viktor Orbán said. In an interview published in the conservative German Welt am Sonntag, Orbán said he agreed with Pope Francis insofar as the European Union should help refugees out of Christian, fraternal love. But the question is in what ways should it do so, he added. The Syrians exposed to fatal threats at home have the right to enter the first safe country but we have let them make their way into Europe by setting aside all the related laws, Orbán said. Hungary makes a more sensitive approach towards migration than Germany does as it lies in a danger zone. For this reason, if masses of people are flowing into the country, the alarm bells go off, The prime minister said politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels are acting as if they were representing the centre of an empire. The Hungarian government, in turn, would like to see the European Union have a parliament with limited powers, a strong Council of prime ministers and a Commission that is a guardian of the treaties rather than a political player on its own.

2 ORBÁN: EU S RUSSIA POLICY MISTAKEN Asked about his relationship with Vladimir Putin, Orbán told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that demonising the Russian president is a silly approach. One should recognise that Putin has turned his nation once again into a strong player in world politics. The European Union, however, fails to understand that it should demonstrate strength and willingness to cooperate simultaneously. Europe s current policy towards Russia is mistaken because it is overly onesided, Asked about his ties with Germany, Orbán said he had always respected the chancellor in office even if this is not reciprocated today. Anyway, we all have much to thank to Chancellor Angela Merkel as she had thwarted efforts that would have economically ruined Europe and she was the one who obliged negligent EU members to do their homework, Orbán said Europe has a vested interest in the implementation of central European investment projects co-financed by the Chinese. My view that Germany and the Visegrad countries would become the crucial economic axis of Europe still provokes smile but I am sure that from 2030 on we and Germany would jointly finance the EU s budget, Orbán said. KÖVÉR: C EUROPE SET MODEL FOR WORLD 450 YEARS AGO Central Europe set a model for the world 450 years ago which it could do this time around again, the Hungarian parliamentary speaker said in Turda (Torda), in western Romania. László Kövér addressed a ceremony marking the 450th anniversary of the Torda Edict, the very first law to declare freedom of religion in the world. Convened in 1568, the Diet of Torda issued an edict also known as Patent of Toleration as an early attempt to guarantee religious freedom in Christian Europe. Seen as a brave move toward religious toleration and a direct renunciation of national establishment of a single religion, the Edict of Torda legally applied to Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and Unitarians. Kövér said at the ceremony that accepting the call of Transylvanian representatives, he would initiate that the Hungarian parliament declare January 13 a memorial day for religious freedom to mark the Torda Edict. He said that errors committed in the 20th century must not be repeated again today. I call on all of us to live and realise our national selfidentities and endeavours not against one another, but with the mission to strengthen one another, in the spirit of national fairness, We must believe in this notion even if the recent unprecedentedly harsh and irrational political attack at Transylvania s Hungarian community seems to contradict it, Kövér said, referring to recent remarks by the Romanian prime minister. Remarks by Mihai Tudose concerning Hungarian autonomy efforts were strongly rejected by the Hungarian foreign minister, who summoned the Romanian ambassador over the issue on Friday. It is beyond doubt that recent remarks by Tudose which involved basically threatening a national community and its representatives with execution are completely unacceptable and incompatible with European values and the 21st century, Péter Szijjártó said. Addressing the ceremony in Turda, Hungarian Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog said the message of the Diet 450 years ago is not simply the importance of religious tolerance and a respect towards all religions, but the importance of fighting for justice with noble tools. While the enemy in 1568 was the Ottoman Empire, today it is the forces that not only reject but want to completely destroy Christian culture, In his address, Hunor Kelemen, leader of the ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party, said it had been possible to take a decision 450 years ago that had prevented serious conflicts. We need such decisions today, in the 21st century, The RMDSZ leader expressed hope that members of the Hungarian community would not be hanged, 2

3 as has recently been pledged for any action taken in the interest of preserving their national identity and their freedom to decide their community s future. NÉMETH: IT IS UP TO ROMANIA TO PARTICIPATE IN REGIONAL COOPERATION Romania should decide whether or not it wants to be involved in central European cooperation, which is taking good shape, the head of the Hungarian parliament s foreign affairs committee said in Cluj (Kolozsvár), in western Romania. Hungary has been committed to building such cooperation for several years and wants to include Romania in it, too, Zsolt Németh told a roundtable with leaders of ethnic Hungarian parties. If Romania wants to become part of such cooperation, it should not reject cooperating with Hungary and the Hungarians, he said, adding that Romania s reluctance must be connected with the rights of its ethnic Hungarian community. The ice in Hungarian-Romanian ties has been broken and started to melt after the freeze in 2012, Németh said that preparations for the new EU budgetary period, the EU s upcoming Romanian presidency in the first half of 2019 and linking Hungary s and Romania s energy networks would offer great opportunities for building cooperation. Németh was asked about recent remarks made by the Romanian prime minister concerning Hungarian autonomy efforts. Németh said that Mihai Tudose had the right to choose this form of political suicide, [ ], adding that a politician in Europe would normally not really survive such statements. MAYORS HOLD CONFERENCE ON MIGRATION, SOROS PLAN Mayors of local authorities held a conference in Budapest to discuss illegal migration, decry the so-called Soros plan and express support for the government s migration policy. Károly Szita, Mayor of Kaposvár for the ruling Fidesz party, said that 2018 would be a crucial year as Brussels will seek to have the mandatory resettlement quotas accepted by each country by the summer and speed up family reunification. All contributors agreed on rejecting migration and the EU s mandatory resettlement quota scheme, citing dangers to public safety, women s equality and parallel societies. Approving an appeal, the participants called on the government to initiate laws, if need be, to counter the Soros plan and the agencies organising migration. Fidesz spokesman Imre Puskás said the ruling party totally agreed with the appeal, and called on the municipal councils to join it. Puskás noted that activists of the opposition Együtt and Momentum parties turned up at the conference wearing a mask depicting [US billionaire George] Soros. Their action, he said, revealed whom they are financed by. The spokesman qualified the absence of opposition mayors from the conference as a sign of their indifference to the future of their locality. KARÁCSONY CALLS FOR FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY, CORRUPTION Should the left wing come to power in the general election this spring, it will fight against poverty and clamp down on corruption, Gergely Karácsony, the joint prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Párbeszéd and Socialist parties, said. Karácsony compared the incumbent government to a gang of crooks, which he said hinders the rise of society, seeks to remove Hungary from the map of Europe and turned politics into a synonym of war and theft. He said that all advocates of a genuine change in government should vote for the open alliance initiated by the Socialists and Párbeszéd. All the other votes would support the parties that are currently governing Hungary, Those who stay away from the April 8 ballot or vote for another opposition party that is not yet certain how to balance between the interests of the country and its own would ultimately also back the ruling Fidesz and Christian Democratic parties, 3

4 Karácsony reiterated that the Socialist- Párbeszéd alliance would be open to all democratic opposition forces. JOBBIK SEEKS EXPLANATION FOR HUNGARY S ADMISSION OF 1,300 REFUGEES Jobbik demands answers regarding Hungary s admission of 1,300 migrants, Péter Jakab, the radical nationalist party s spokesman, said. Jakab reacted to an interview foreign ministry deputy state secretary Kristóf Altusz had given to the Times of Malta in which he said that Hungary gave refugee status to 1,300 people last year. Altusz said the government had chosen not to report this in the interest of the safety of the refugees. Jakab said it was known that some 20,000 rich migrants had arrived in Hungary through the government s now defunct residency bond scheme and that in February 2016 the prime minister had signed a European Council resolution on the implementation of a migrant quota scheme in the European Union. But he said that even in his worst nightmares he could not have imagined that the government would implement the scheme and resettle 1,300 refugees in Hungary. Jakab said that if the government had indeed admitted those refugees to Hungary, then last year s Stop Brussels! campaign, the 2016 migrant quota referendum, the National Consultation surveys and the criticisms of US financier George Soros were all just part of a show. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, when asked earlier how Hungary could have secretly taken in 1,300 refugees while it regularly speaks out against Europe s migrant quota scheme that would allocate 1,294 refugees to the country, said Hungary was fighting the mandatory quota scheme because it would relocate illegal migrants in the European Union and strip member states of their right to decide who they want to take in. He argued that Hungary s taking in refugees under the Geneva Convention was a separate matter. DK LAUNCHES SIGNATURE DRIVE TO SCRAP UKRAINIANS ELIGIBILITY FOR HUNGARY PENSION The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) is launching a signature drive to scrap the eligibility for Hungarian pension of those Ukrainian and Russian citizens who have registered in Hungarian border villages with the sole purpose of taking advantage of the relevant interstate agreement, DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány said. DK s question seeking endorsement from the general public reads: Do you agree that Russian and Ukrainian citizens who have never paid pension contributions in Hungary should be ineligible for Hungarian pension? Gyurcsány said that pensions in the ranges of 200, ,000 forints (EUR ) were not uncommon among the roughly 10,000 Ukrainians who were eligible for Hungarian pension. It is enough for those who want high pensions to present a proof of academic attainment and documentation confirming prior employment in Ukraine, Gyurcsány said he had found a rundown building in one of the villages that was the registered address of 202 people. He said some village residents are said to be taking in Ukrainian citizens for money, while others suggested that it was the local mayor s way of buying enough votes to never have to fear another challenger. Gyurcsány accused the government of pursuing pension imports to serve its own political interests. EGYÜTT ELECTS VIKTOR SZIGETVARI PM CANDIDATE The opposition Együtt (Together) party has nominated board leader Viktor Szigetvári as its candidate for prime minister and chairman Péter Juhász for topping its list to be entered for the April 8 general election. Együtt is the only party that considers voters grown-up people and will make promises that it can surely fulfil, Szigetvári said on the sidelines of the party s Saturday meeting. Lamenting on the outcome of the vote, Szigetvári suggested a scenario under which an alliance of left-wing, 4

5 green and liberal parties would win enough mandate to govern with an absolute majority. Another possibility he suggested was that ruling Fidesz would lose its absolute majority despite garnering the largest number of votes. The principles guiding the party s policy are renewal and cooperation, Szigetvári said, calling Együtt the only liberal-democratic party in Hungary. VONA: JOBBIK WANTS TO WIN ELECTION ALONE The radical nationalist Jobbik party wants to win the general election alone, party leader Gábor Vona said. He added, however, that Jobbik would be prepared to cooperate with the new parties, including LMP and Momentum, in Hungary s next parliament if power relations so require. Jobbik stands prepared for governing Hungary and creating a fair, safe and liveable country, Vona said, with three months to go until the general election. While the left-wing parties want to replace one another, Jobbik seeks to replace the government, Vona said Jobbik s shift to the political mainstream over the past five years, a tendency backed unanimously by the party s senior bodies, proved to be a success. BUDAI: SOROS NETWORK CONTINUES ATTACKING HUNGARY The network of US billionaire George Soros will continue to attack Hungary even in 2018, with operations in the country, as well as in Brussels and in the United States, a lawmaker of ruling Fidesz said. The Soros network will attempt to meddle in the election campaign with the clear purpose of removing the Orbán government, Gyula Budai said. He referred to a report drafted by Soros-sponsored US Democratic senators denouncing Hungary, the anti-hungary debate in Brussels, the recent visit to Budapest by green MEP Judith Sargentini, who is preparing a report on rule of law in Hungary, and a pro-migrant conference hosted by the [Budapest CEU] Soros university as operations directed by Soros. Budai said representatives of the Soros network had also been present at this week s court hearing of the case of Ahmed H, a Syrian national convicted under terrorism charges in connection with a mass disturbance at the Röszke border crossing in ALMOST HALF OF CENTRAL EUROPEANS DISSATISFIED WITH EU LEADERSHIP Forty-nine percent of people in central Europe are dissatisfied with EU leaders whereas a majority, 73%, want their country to remain member of the community, a representative survey released by the Nézőpont research institute shows. The institute asked 1,000 voting age adults in each of 11 countries in the region, including Hungary, between September 26 and October 27. The survey shows that most dissatisfied with Brussels are the Slovaks (71%), the Czechs (69%) and the Germans (58%), followed by the Hungarians (57%). Most satisfied are the Romanians (58%), the Slovenians and the Poles (49% both). A vast majority of the Austrians (86%) and the Poles (84%) are in favour of EU membership, with the respective rate being 71% among Hungarians. Merely 14% of Hungarians believe that their country should quit the alliance. In comparison, 31% of the Czechs, 25% of the Croatians and 23% of the Germans and Austrians, respectively, think the same. Fully 53% of all respondents are pessimistic about the overall direction of developments in the bloc, and merely 40% are satisfied with it, the survey shows. Most pessimistic in this regard are the Slovaks (69%) and the Hungarians (68%), followed by the Czechs (64%). Publisher in charge of production: Miklós Vaszily, Director General of Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA) Publisher in charge of content: István Galambos, Duna Mediaszolgáltató Nonprofit Zrt. MTI director Editor: Zoltán Straky (Duna) 5