On Thursday, opposition parties criticized the government, saying it was responsible for the economic crisis and the cost of living and the weak forint.

Responding to a press conference by Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, socialist Zoltán Vajda said in an online press conference that to restore confidence in Hungarian economic policy and stop the “free fall of the rate of the forint”, the government should “stop the war against Brussels”, introduce a comprehensive anti-corruption package and join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

In addition, the government should introduce the global minimum corporate tax and strive to introduce the euro in the country, he said. Social spending should be increased to replace “propaganda spending”, he said. Vajda, who also heads parliament’s budget committee, called on the government to “stop ripping off Hungarians and making them pay for inflation and the weak forint”.

Democratic Coalition (DK) spokesman Balázs Barkóczi said the forint had become the worst-performing currency in the world “and it is the Hungarian people and families who will pay the price”. He told an online press conference that

the forint’s exchange rate against the euro was close to 417 on Wednesday.

Other regional currencies, including the Polish zloty, Czech koruna and Romanian leu, are “ahead” and even the Ukrainian hryvnia is performing better, he added.

He said the last twelve years of the Orbán regime had led to a weakening of the forint, with its “multi-friendly economic policy”, corruption and Hungary’s growing indebtedness.

Even if the central bank raises the base rate, public debt remains high and Hungary will not receive “EU funds suspended due to government corruption”, he added.

Barkoczi

blamed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for “the collapse of the forint”,

adding that it was not a solution but the problem itself.

Source: MTI