Former Finance Minister’s self defence
August 5th, 2011Commenting on the governing party’s plans to sue those responsible for Hungary’s debt burden, Former Finance Minister Péter Oszkó makes a passionate defence of his one year performance.
Péter Szíjjártó, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s spokesman and chairman of the parliamentary subcommittee inquiring into the reasons why Hungary almost doubled public debt from 2002 to 2010, ignited a hash controversy announcing that the parliamentary majority will seek possibilities of legally holding former leaders responsible (BudaPost, August, 3). He said indebting the country was a sin and possibly a crime too. During the last year of that period though, Hungary was run by a transitional government under Gordon Bajnai as Prime Minister and Mr Oszkó as Finance Minister that had the task of coping with the financial crisis and introducing tough restrictions to reduce public deficit. The Bajnai government was not found responsible for the increase in public debt by the parliamentary subcommittee, but since its report encompassed the period from 2002 to 2010, Mr Oszkó felt it right to defend himself against any possible charges.
In his regular blog on the website of the business daily Világgazdaság, the former Finance Minister contends the Bajnai government “did more that anybody else to solve the debt problem”. Mr Oszkó accuses the Fidesz led government of having increased the deficit with their tax reforms last year and of intending to blame the previous governments for the austerity measures ensuing from their own mistakes.