PM Orbán announced new social policy measures yesterday

HUNGARY - In Brief 23 Feb 2025 by Istvan Racz

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It seems the governing party's campaign for next April's election is already running at full steam. At least, this is the lesson conveyed by PM Orbán's annual evaluation speech (similar to the US president's state of the union speech) held yesterday. On politics, Mr. Orbán saw a "breakthrough" internationally, naturally with the reappearance of the new US president on the scene. On domestic matters, he made his usual comments, some anti-liberal ("We are going to execute the domestic deposits of the Soros empire by Easter"), some anti-EU (calling the head of the European People's Party a "regional commander" who oversees domestic opposition) some freedom fighting (an initiative to introduce a reverse Magnitsky Act, after Propaganda and Secret Service Minister Mr. Rogán came under sanctions in the US recently), and some homophobic ("local organisers should not bother preparing for this summer's Pride March at all"). Of more interest maybe were Mr. Orbán's comments on the economy. He was quite optimistic about the prospects of recovery, although he left the details for the economy minister. However, he made the important remark that the political "breakthrough" he saw was not worth anything if inflation could not be controlled. In this context, he focused on the economy minister's efforts to contain the rise of food prices, by the persuasion of major retailers or by administrative steps, such as price caps, if needed. Most importantly, Mr. Orbán announced a series of family-assisting social policy measures, actually four new ones and an additional one, the latter of which had been known and even built into the standing 2025 government budget as regards its impact during t...