The Orbán government is fighting a lot of wars, some of which don’t even appear to be real. The war against the national debt and low employment is very real, however. And the Orbán-government is deeply committed to waging it. Hungary hasn’t had much success in this area thus far. After two successive governments reduced the debt from 90% of GDP to almost 50% by the end of the 90s, it is back to over 80% now. While Fidesz is right to claim that MSZP bears most of the responsibility (it did also most for reducing the debt in the 90s), it conveniently downplays its own part in this process. Employment is even more difficult in that the government has fewer instruments to control it and the past two decades have shown no signs of improvement. While the government’s commitment to handling these challenges is not in doubt, some of the measures it plans to enact to achieve progress are dubious.

Policy Solutions' analysis on the Orbán government's "war" on national debt and low employment can be downloaded from here.