Hungarian Conservative

In the second part of our series looking at important facts concerning the Hungarian economy and society, our authors shed light on how the Orbán governments have managed to achieve a spectacular turnaround in terms of employment after 2010.

‘It seems clear that both federalists and sovereigntists agree that the current treaty framework isn’t up to the task of addressing the crises in the European Union and its Member States. To tackle these issues, it’s evident that new treaties need to be crafted.’

The Roma were the real losers of the fall of communism. With the regime change, most Hungarian Roma, and in fact, many non-Roma Hungarians, lost their livelihoods, as the unskilled jobs they had filled vaporized with the collapse of the outdated and unsustainable industry created under state socialism.

According to the PM, while ‘lost sovereignty was in the focus of the last century’, Hungary regained its sovereignty at the end of the 20th century, so ‘this decade is about retaining that sovereignty’. The lesson that can be learned from the dissolution of the Socialist bloc and of the Soviet Union, Viktor Orbán suggested, is that ‘it is worth being radical, recalling the activism and courage of the system-changing Fidesz politicians.

In Matolcsy’s understanding, the current debate on the theoretical and practical side of the economy is caused by the difference between ‘the former liberal approach and the currently rising approach based on sustainability’, the contrast of which is compounded by, or more precisely triggered and culminated by, ‘the clash of Western and Eastern, i.e. Asian, positions’. The author clearly takes a stand against Western neoliberalism and is in favour of a Eurasian shift.