Hungarian PM wages financial war

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday announced partial debt relief for Hungarian borrowers, the costs of which are to be borne by the banks in question. Many Hungarians have been unable to service their mortgages with foreign banks as a result of the strength of the Swiss franc. The liberal-conservative daily Die Presse is outraged: "Certain principles should be respected: those of the market, of property and of free contracts. The right thing to do is to sit down with the banks and work out extensions to the terms of payment, so as to find a common solution for the borrowers and the banks. But Orbán has nothing but disdain for such civilised behaviour. He acts with the fury of a despot: the exchange rate is set by decree, foreign firms must bleed. If it comes to that, [the banks] Erste Group and Raiffeisen will have lost a battle, but Hungary will lose the war. Because no one will put their money in a country that turns its back on the rule of law, and where investors must reckon with arbitrary decisions at any time."

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