In the debt web
June 16th, 2011Hungary simply cannot afford to spend twice as much on its debt-servicing, as it earns from the growth of its GDP– a pro-government analyst remarks, in defence of the legislative policies of the ruling coalition.
In today’s volatile global economy, sustainable and predictable assets are increasingly valuable – writes Anna Szabó in Magyar Nemzet. And that is the root of the government’s determination to make it difficult for future governments to alter the course it has taken, in order to cut back Hungary’s public debt (from 82 to 50 per cent of the GDP). The ruling majority has been fiercely criticised for its plans to carve the main outlines of its tax system in stone, the so-called „cardinal laws” which will require a two-thirds majority of future Parliaments to amend.
Anna Szabó also rejects another objection to the government’s policies, namely that it refuses to seek a national consensus on important policy issues. „Who exactly are they supposed to agree with, anyway? With (radical rightist) Jobbik, whose only positive strategic proposal concerns the refurbishing of medieval fortresses? Or with (environmentalist) LMP which has been preaching voodoo economics for months on end?… Or perhaps with Socialists who can’t even remember how public debt increased by 12 thousand billion forints (to 20 thousand billion) during their period in power? If they, of all people, happened to agree, that in itself would be cause for alarm.”