“Hands off pensions! Pensions must not be cut — they must be raised!” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared in a video posted to his Facebook page on Wednesday.
Responding to a question about the Tisza Party’s proposal to tax pensions, the prime minister said that in Hungary, “there have always been only two kinds of politics: left-wing and right-wing.”
“Since Lajos Bokros, the left has had an old obsession with finding ways to tax pensions. The right, on the other hand — not only for economic reasons but also out of respect for our parents and grandparents — has always believed pensions should be increased, never taken away,” Orbán said.
He recalled that “the 13th-month pension was taken away by the left and restored by the right,” adding that “Tisza is clearly a left-wing party.”
“We are learning more and more about their tax ideas, their approach to pensions, and their plans for hospital closures. It’s a typical, classic left-wing economic policy — and the country has already paid the price for that once,” he remarked.
Concluding his message, the prime minister reiterated:
“When it comes to pensioners, let me be absolutely clear — hands off pensions! They must not be reduced, only increased.”
