Hungary: Never mind about that whole “next Greece” thing

After doing their best last week to convince the world that their economy was on the brink of a Greece-style crash, sending their own currency as well as the euro into a tailspin, the ruling Fidesz party is now awkwardly trying to repair the damage: "It is blatant that Hungary is not Greece," said Mihaly ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

After doing their best last week to convince the world that their economy was on the brink of a Greece-style crash, sending their own currency as well as the euro into a tailspin, the ruling Fidesz party is now awkwardly trying to repair the damage:

After doing their best last week to convince the world that their economy was on the brink of a Greece-style crash, sending their own currency as well as the euro into a tailspin, the ruling Fidesz party is now awkwardly trying to repair the damage:

"It is blatant that Hungary is not Greece," said Mihaly Varga, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a television interview on Monday. "Greece has 230 billion euros ($274.8 billion) worth of public debt, and in the case of Hungary, we’ve got only … €76 billion public debt. So Hungary is not Greece."[…]

Varga was also quoted on Saturday as saying comparisons to countries such as Greece were "unfortunate."

To be clear, those comparisons were made by the chairman of Varga’s party and then reaffirmed by his boss’s chief spokesman. 

The conventional wisdom on the Hungarian government’s strange behavior over the last week now seems to be that they were trying to make the situation sound more dire than it really is in order to deflect blame for the fact that they won’t be able to deliver on the promises of tax cuts and stimulus that got them elected.

FT’s Lex calls it a "boneheaded exercise in expectations management," which sounds about right. It hasn’t been a stellar debut for Hungary’s Fidesz government. Not that the Socialists were any more honest, but at least when they lied, it sort of worked. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

More from Foreign Policy

Vladimir Putin speaks during the Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at The Konstantin Palace on July 25, 2015 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Vladimir Putin speaks during the Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at The Konstantin Palace on July 25, 2015 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

What Putin Got Right

The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukraine—but not everything.

Dmitry Medvedev (center in the group of officials), an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is now deputy chairman of the country's security council, visits the Omsktransmash (Omsk transport machine factory) in the southern Siberian city of Omsk.
Dmitry Medvedev (center in the group of officials), an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is now deputy chairman of the country's security council, visits the Omsktransmash (Omsk transport machine factory) in the southern Siberian city of Omsk.

Russia Has Already Lost in the Long Run

Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future.

Sri Lankan construction workers along a road in Colombo.
Sri Lankan construction workers along a road in Colombo.

China’s Belt and Road to Nowhere

Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy is a “shadow of its former self.”

Dalton speaks while sitting at a table alongside other U.S. officials.
Dalton speaks while sitting at a table alongside other U.S. officials.

The U.S. Overreacted to the Chinese Spy Balloon. That Scares Me.

So unused to being challenged, the United States has become so filled with anxiety over China that sober responses are becoming nearly impossible.