Looking ahead to 2016
January 5th, 2016A conservative commentator predicts that 2016 will be a good year for Hungary – the economy will continue to grow, and there will be fewer undocumented migrants arriving than in 2015. His left-wing counterpart suspects that the government will needlessly continue its anti-immigrant rhetoric.
In Magyar Hírlap, Sándor Faggyas is optimistic that despite the multiple crises of the past years and the continuing uncertainty, 2016 will be a good year for Hungary. The conservative columnist thinks that Hungary’s economic output will grow faster than the EU average, while inflation and the unemployment rate will stay low. The government’s subsidy plan announced in December (see BudaPost December 23) will help to boost spending and to alleviate the demographic troubles of the country, Faggyas hopes. Concerning the refugee crisis, Faggyas thinks that more migrants will head for Europe, but as the Orbán government has sealed off the borders, far fewer undocumented migrants will cross Hungary’s frontiers than in 2015, when more than 400,000 migrants crossed the country.
In Népszava, György Sebes suspects that the government will prolong its anti-immigrant campaign, despite the fact that very few migrants want to come and settle down in Hungary. The left-wing analyst finds it sad that the government still focuses on migration, which, according to Sebes, is no longer a problem here, as the borders have already been closed to undocumented asylum seekers.