Call for a different freedom fight
May 22nd, 2015A radical conservative pundit calls on the government to refocus its ‘freedom fight’. Instead of fighting for increased national sovereignty and symbolic aims, he recommends strengthening international cooperation in order to fight what he calls ‘neoliberal exploitation’.
PM Orbán’s freedom fight should target poverty and Hungary’s economic marginalization, Péter Techet suggests in Heti Világgazdaság. The young columnist thinks that the most serious problem in Hungary is the low average income. Instead of what Techet considers a symbolic ’freedom fight’ with little actual content, PM Orbán should fight neoliberal economic dogmas. Techet goes on to note that while Hungary’s GDP is growing fast (see BudaPost May 15, 2015), average wages are very low: in Hungary, the average family income is only 14,300 Euros, while in Greece it is 34,000. Techet suggests that this huge difference is due to the EU’s unfair redistribution framework, which in his view has failed to allocate proper development funds to former Socialist member states when they joined the European Union. In the EU, cheap labour in less developed member states serves only German interests, and a real freedom fight in Hungary’s interest should aim at elevating the country from its peripheral economic status, Techet believes. Rather than increasing Hungary’s competitiveness by keeping labour cheap and defending national sovereignty, the government should seek cooperation with other peripheral European countries in order to create a common platform against ‘neoliberal exploitation’, Techet concludes.