“If someone spent their entire childhood in an Irish pub, where they had access to too much alcohol at a young age, then – it seems – this leaves a trace even when one becomes an adult”
– Gergely Gulyás, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office said in an interview he gave to the Hungarian state media, Hirado.hu when asked about Ryanair transferring the cost of the extra profit tax on its passengers. We have previously reported on Ryanair's bout with the Hungarian government about the newly imposed tax here and here.
Gulyás was presumably responding to the airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary’s comment saying that Gulyás and Márton Nagy (Hungarian Minister of Economic Development) are like the famous movie duo, Dumb and Dumber.
According to Gulyás, airlines should not be looking for loopholes in the hope of avoiding the extra profit tax, and added that the consumer protection procedure initiated by the government against Ryanair is already ongoing.
The minister also spoke about the EU sanctions against Russia, and said that there was previously a consensus that there would be no restrictions on energy imports, but this was gradually abandoned. He said that, although the government did everything it could to ensure that Hungary can import gas from as many different sources as possible, this still wasn’t enough for the country to be weaned off of Russian imports.
In the interview, Gulyás also expressed how important the freedom of the press is, claiming that this problem does not exist in Hungary, but rather in Germany, because:
“The problem of our German friends is that freedom of the press does not go hand in hand with media diversity. German politicians often complain that the German press does not report about politics, but is rather trying to shape the country’s politics. This is a problem faced by German democracy.”
The state news agency did not ask the minister whether similar problems might be occurring in Hungary. Instead, in the interview Gulyás mentioned that
- he often runs in downtown Budapest, and that he runs at least 36 kilometers each week
- he loves poems and memoirs
- János Arany is his favorite writer
- when it comes to wines, he prefers Somló for white wine, Szekszárd for red.
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The translation of this article was made possible by our cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation.