Last Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the European Union and the IMF of imposing political conditionalities on badly needed EU and IMF loans.
Last Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the European Union and the IMF of imposing political conditionalities on badly needed EU and IMF loans.
Hungary applied for a 15-20 billion loan last November, before it knew what was happening, but was warned that financial assistance would depend on demonstrating a commitment to democratic principles.
The government of Viktor Orbán has come under fire from the banking and political establishments since it enacted a series of laws and a new constitution that limit the so-called independence of the Hungarian Central Bank. In other words, the Hungarian leadership has very wisely enacted laws that limit the ability of the financial regime to strip the country of its assets.
As pressure mounts on Orbán to change the law, he has become more outspoken. In an interview last Friday, he said:
Creating political conditions, for example with regard to the judicial system, amounts to blackmail and is unacceptable within the European Union.
It seems that European countries are now being asked to accept the same conditions that African countries have had to deal with in the past.
