Orban is treading the same path as his social democratic colleague, Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou. In the recent election campaign, Orban had played down the crisis. Now, after taken office, he has “suddenly” discovered that the country’s budget deficit—amounting to 7.5 percent of GDP (gross domestic product)—was twice as high as his predecessors had indicated...
Orban’s right-wing Citizen’s Federation (Fidesz) won the parliamentary elections in May with a two-thirds majority. It owed its success to widespread anger over the austerity measures dictated by the International Monetary Fund and introduced by the former social democratic government. During the campaign, Orban declined to propose any concrete political measures in the election campaign...
Now, Orban has announced “basic changes” and a “new economic system” for the country, going far beyond the austerity measures of the preceding government...
Business taxes are to be reduced from 19 to 10 percent, and the graduated income tax system replaced by a uniform Flat Tax of 16 percent on all incomes. Previously, the income tax had been regulated in two stages: 17 percent for annual incomes up to 5 million Forint (€18,000) and 32 per cent for all incomes above... Wages for employees in the public service are to be cut by an average of 15 percent. The preceding government under Gordon Bajnai had already abolished the payment of an additional month’s salary and other premiums for public service workers...
Plans to renationalise the country’s pension funds, which had been privatised years ago, have been abandoned in favor of a further reform involving dramatic pension cuts and an increase in the retirement age...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/hung-j19.shtml 
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