The remarks made by the leftist prime ministerial candidate have outraged many. This is not the first time the politician has attacked government measures designed to protect families.

Peter Marki-Zay, the Hungarian left’s candidate for prime minister, described the Hungarian government’s decision to freeze the price of several basic food products as a „stupid measure”. The left-wing candidate spoke about this on 16 January, during his usual weekly assessment on social media, according to the Hungarian Origo news portal.

As V4NA has reported earlier, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban announced on 12 January that the government will introduce a price cap on several key staple foods from 1 February. For the time being, the cap will be in place for 3 months and will require shops to offer granulated sugar, wheat flour, sunflower oil, pork leg, chicken breast, chicken backs and cow’s milk with a 2.8% fat content at prices registered on 15 October 2021. The price cap was necessary mainly because energy prices have risen significantly in recent months, chiefly as a result of Brussels’s misguided energy policy, which has also affected food prices. The decision will bring relief to many Hungarian families and could also have a mitigating effect on inflation.

Commenting on the issue, the leftist prime ministerial candidate has called the measure „nonsense”, Origo points out, stressing that Mr Marki-Zay’s remark comes as no surprise. The portal recalls that Ferenc Gyurcsany – the leader of Hungary’s strongest opposition party – and the governments led by him before 2010 made average people pay for their botched economic policies in the form of tax raises, price hikes and soaring utility costs. Their actions have generally benefitted multinational companies. Origo also recalls that in an earlier post, Peter Marki-Zay had ensured multinational chains of his backing, taking the side of Aldi, Lidl, Penny, Spar and Tesco against the people.

His post came as a response to a move by the government, which decided to distribute food products about to expire to those in need, instead of throwing it away. Leftists have called the measure the „confiscation act,” attacking the move imposed for the sake of the people.

Peter Márki-Zay’s latest remarks have provoked outrage even on the left. In her Facebook post, Sociologist Erzsebet Szalai wrote – among other things – that “You can make fun about chicken backs, but this is the only meat dish for over 20 per cent of people. And they can certainly use every forint,” Origo writes.

Curiously, the leader of the Hungarian opposition’s currently strongest party (DK, or Democratic Coalition), Ferenc Gyurcsany, said himself two years ago that during the ongoing epidemic situation, the government should introduce state-regulated prices for foodstuffs.