In office since 2010, when his country was going through a violent financial crisis, the ultraconist Prime Minister has been leading from an unorthodox economic policy, and concentrates powers.
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May 2010. When Viktor Orban became Prime Minister of Hungary, following the victory of his party, Fidesz, in the April legislative elections, the country is on the verge of asphyxiation. The prices fly away, the currency – the Forint – collapses, the economy plunged 6.8 % the previous year, triggering the flight of unemployment, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is called to the ‘Help…
In 2004, at the time of entering the European Union, economists nevertheless praised the strength of the “Hungarian miracle”. After the fall of the Soviet block, Budapest privatized its economic fabric and its pensions, opened its banks to external capital and multiplied the measures to attract foreign direct investments, which represented up to … 51.8 % of the gross domestic product (GDP), in 2007. A world record.
This opening greatly boosted growth in the early 2000s, but it turned against the country with the 2008 financial crisis, when Westerners brutally remove their money. Thousands of Hungarians in debt in Swiss francs are then ruined by the collapse of their currency. “Mr. Orban was elected on the promise to charge the cost of the crisis to foreign investors, and not to citizens, recalls the Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev. Correct excesses of privatizations was a good idea. But to ensure Stay in place, he gradually concentrated all powers and unit the rule of law. “
contradiction
At first, he drives out the IMF and his austerity cures. His government is launching a policy of non -orthodox support for the economy. It helps households reimburse their credits, restructure public debt, now mainly owned in drills rather than foreign currencies.
Furthermore, it reduces excessive dependence on external investments – the share of foreign capital in banks thus goes from more than 85 % to 55 % in 2015 – while continuing to unroll the red carpet to car manufacturers creating ‘Jobs, who are not asked to install their factories in the country: Audi, BMW, Opel… “He deploys both a neoliberal discourse with certain European investors and an internal nationalist discourse”, analyzes Dominik Owczarek, from The Institute of Public Affairs, an independent reflection circle, in Warsaw.
and Mr. Orban is not a contradiction close. If he waged a violent fight against immigration, he nevertheless accepted, in September 2021, a decree authorizing the temporary arrival of “guest workers”, especially from Indonesia and Vietnam, in order to overcome the lack of hand -Aly.
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