In defence of austerity
June 24th, 2011Drawing his conclusions from the Greek crisis, a leading right wing commentator says no nation has the right to live in opulence unless its economy is sound. Hungary, of course, should also learn this lesson.
“At the very moment when the Greek lie is being unmasked, thousands of Hungarians take to the streets for tragi-comic protests, motivated by the dangerous conviction that they are entitled to live better than the rest.” This is how András Bencsik, editor-in-chief of Demokrata sums up the demonstrations against the government’s economic policies.
“In a tragic and disheartening response (to the crisis), public servants threaten strikes because they do not receive sufficient pay rises, while businesses are fighting for their bare survival rather than for profits, and the wages of their employees, sink at an unprecedented pace.”
The solution does not lie, Bencsik believes, in leaving the European Union, although when Hungary joined, in 2004, his paper portrayed on its front page the only MP who cast a ‘no’ vote as “the only true man”. Sever years after he writes “time does not roll backwards. There is no alternative to the European Union. What would be needed is a more concentrated, stronger and more rational Union.”