The Hungarian government is planning to tighten measures on border crossings from 1 September, because the current system is ineffective, Viktor Orban told Hungary s public radio. The government is also working on a two-year growth plan to help economic recovery, the premier said.

New measures are needed because of the pandemic, PM Viktor Orban told public Kossuth Radio s „Good Morning Hungary” programme on Friday. The situation is deteriorating in most European countries and the possible import of the virus is a major concern for Hungary, so action must be taken, he said.

„In the summer, we adopted a new colour-coding system to classify countries. We will abandon this and introduce new guidelines starting on 1 September, because we can no longer maintain this method of allowing entry into the country and stricter rules may be needed. No one should book or organise holidays in south European countries from September,” the prime minister said.

The most important thing now is to start schools and kindergartens in September in a regular manner, so everything must be done to prevent the disease from being brought in, Viktor Orban continued. He said the transition to digital education was more successful than expected, but it had its downsides. According to his estimate, around ten per cent of students – occasional participants – have disappeared from the educational system.

„The knowledge gap within classes will likely be larger in September than before the virus,” he said.

Two-year growth plan

The prime minister stressed that the guiding principle of the government s actions is job protection.

„We will not give up on this goal. We will create as many jobs as the virus destroys”, Viktor Orban pointed out.

He recalled that the government had introduced a moratorium on loan repayments as an initial measure so that families and entrepreneurs could spend money on themselves and their families, instead of repaying their debts. Then the government introduced job protection plans and schemes to create new jobs were also implemented.

The new task is to draw up a two-year growth plan, Viktor Orban said, highlighting that part of the money spent on defence has also been used to finance future investments. The new economic growth plan will have been pushed through all the necessary forums by mid-September, the prime minister stressed.