Hungarian News

FIDESZ energy policy – chaos or strategy?

• April 8, 2022
• István
• 41 Comments

The Hungarian ruler has announced the day before yesterday that it is more important to import Russian gas than cheap gas, I reported about ►EN. FIDESZ members of the European Parliament (EP) have yesterday voted for ending the import of gas, oil, and coal from Russia and immediately to end the co-operation with nuclear power provider Rosatom, especially stopping the building of Paks 2 through Rosatom. Is this just a chaos, has Orbán lost grip on his party or is it a strategy to create facts hard to tell the FIDESZ voters otherwise?

That young parties are very much connected to a single person is not very surprising. In democratic countries these parties either survive their founder or disappear again. That a democratic party of relevance in its country would be dominated by a single person for more than 3 decades I am not aware of. This happens in autocratic ones, where a leader remains for lifetime. Since the beginning days FIDESZ is Orbán and Orbán is FIDESZ. This is a party that didn’t split, although the one or other member left through the years, but it absorbed other parties. The chairman is dominating the country in every single aspect. This is a party without a program, not even with a political concept, as long as we don’t qualify theft and power grabbing as political concept. Just a few days ago this chairman succeeded – regardless the applied means – in getting a percentage of votes in general elections as never before. Not only by the system of a sole ruler, but also by the measured results Orbán is in power not only in the country, but even more in his party. A party that is infamous for not accepting an opinion different from the chairman’s opinion – let alone voting differently. No, Orbán has a tight grip on his party, perhaps more tightened than ever before.

And still the sentence “Calls for an immediate full embargo on Russian imports of oil, coal, nuclear fuel, and on gas as swiftly as possible” is part of the EP decision as well as “to terminate collaboration with Russian companies on existing and new nuclear projects, including in Finland, Hungary and Bulgaria, where Russian experts can be replaced by Western ones” ►EN. All FIDESZ MEPs who took place in the seating, these were Andrea Bocskor, Andor Deli, Kinga Gál, Ádám Kósa, Ernő Schaller-Baross, and Edina Tóth voted in favour of the full text, none of the FIDESZ members voted against, none abstained. Chairman of the FIDESZ delegation Tamás Deutsch, as well as the KNDP member György Hölvényi, who still sits in the European Peoples Party EPP, as well as 5 others were absent. The voting results are here, under number RC-B9-0197/2022 – Proposition de résolution (ensemble du texte), starting on page 77 of the minutes ►EN/FR. Adopted with 513 votes, against 22 votes, abstained 19.

The same day RTL had a news item about the Hungarian overhead cut ►HU. Here it states that the estimated costs for the taxpayer during the current year are 1300 billion Forint or more than 3.4 billion Euro. The average Hungarian family causes costs of 320 000 Ft (842 €,) which is more than the state pays as social benefits or 6 % below the minimum pension. And here we mustn’t forget that this is no benefit for the poor, but a cut for everybody. Since the wealthy use even more energy than the poor they have even more profit from this measure. The old saying that the overhead cut heats the swimming pools of the FIDESZ elite is pretty true. And this in times of already extreme inflation and the highest debt ever. In times where the interest rates are skyrocketing and the EU is closing the money tap. Already in the end of March minister of finance Mihály Varga announced ►HU that “the most important task after the elections will be to adjust public finances to the economic difficulties caused by the war.” Of course he left out of his statement the irresponsible spending to win the elections, the war is not just a cheap excuse, but although causing economic problems only a part of the entire problem.

The usual statement of Orbán is that the Hungarian families mustn’t pay the price of the war. This is ridiculous. Not only because the price is paid by Ukrainians. But also because of the economic effects hit everybody. By ideological reasons Putin must not be found guilty. He must remain the good guy in the FIDESZ tale. Not for nothing yesterday the media council decided that also the pure Russian propaganda on the state news channel M1 is “objective and balanced reporting” ►HU. And of course Orbán never made a decision in favour of the poor part of the population, he always favoured the rich part. The poor pay more taxes since 2010, the rich less. The poor lost a lot of their purchase power, the benefits for the poorest have not been changed, but the wealthy suddenly may buy houses and cars sponsored by the state. And I am not even talking about the corrupt elite, but only about those in good jobs earning well.

Now we face a situation where the state is losing income by the economy in problems, by the EU stopping funding, while at the same time our finances are also in deep trouble by never seen spending regarding the elections. And someone has to pay for the skyrocketing energy prices. This means Orbán has no chance to finance everything “as usual.” He needs to decide whether to feed the oligarchs or to tamper energy prices. The 1st won’t end at all, the latter Orbán himself has made a matter of life and death during the campaign. On election day he said “we will see after the elections” and this week that he will keep the overhead cut “if possible.” Isn’t it a typical way for Orbán to agree with energy sanctions within the EU and blame the EU at home for higher gas prices, when import from Russia stops? Or to blame the EU for ending cheap electricity by telling them that the Russian nuclear power plant would have made everything so much cheaper?

Orbán just plays the nice guy in the EU to make a scapegoat from the EU at home to cover his own failures, perhaps the EU becomes so unpopular by blaming them that he finally can leave without his true believers would loose confidence. He had his largest success by telling his sheep that Ukraine attacked Russia and that Márki-Zay would send soldiers to Ukraine the day he would be elected. It is again just a very dirty strategy.