Addressing a panel discussion entitled ‘Work and Jobs,’ Mr Orbán said in the present pandemic situation, ensuring the availability of vaccines is the most important social issue as without vaccines there can be no sustainable social policy.
All vaccines are good if they are safe and have been administered to people, the Prime Minister highlighted.
He said his experience of sixteen years as prime minister shows that it is possible to achieve full employment in a modern, competitive market economy. Hungary reduced unemployment from twelve per cent to almost three per cent, he highlighted.
If we want a good social policy, and a competitive economy all at once, an appropriate relationship must be created between fiscal policy and social policy, he stated.
He said, in addition to employing a robust social policy, Hungary is pursuing “a highly aggressive” tax reduction policy. We introduced a fifteen per cent income tax and a nine per cent corporation tax. At the same time, in the interest of the attainment of full employment – something that “we call workfare society” – these elements must be combined with a robust family policy.
The Prime Minister highlighted that Hungary spends 5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) on supporting families as, in his view, families constitute the foundations of work force. Therefore, supporting families also benefits the labour market, he underlined.
The Hungarian example therefore shows that a robust social policy, an aggressive policy of tax reductions and a policy that supports families are able to create a workfare society, he pointed out.
Mr Orbán finally expressed hope that the successful Polish fiscal policy measure, as part of which persons under the age of 25 years are not required to pay personal income tax, will bring about positive results in Hungary as well.
