Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00and let's show the whole society exactly
00:00:03what is happening behind the scenes, how farming works,
00:00:07how it is possible
00:00:10to Csongor Farkas, the to put the product on the table from arable land, or from the stable or from the pens, let's try
00:00:13to involve schools, let's try to involve
00:00:17social organizations who
00:00:20indeed have a big role in how the society of the future
00:00:23develops, which is why agrotourism is a
00:00:27highly supported direction. In Austria, and
00:00:30I think we should adopt this direction as much as possible. I
00:00:34myself am also the president of a nature park, I considered it extremely
00:00:38important that there is one nature park in Nógrád. This should become a
00:00:41priority tourist area, because we are not
00:00:45interested in such a region with outstanding values,
00:00:48let's say, going down the rugged and
00:00:52uncertain path of industry, and as we see now, often leading to a dead end,
00:00:56but we are interested in preserving
00:00:59our natural endowments as much as possible for
00:01:03future generations, which is why we need to
00:01:06look at agriculture, the agri-food sector, forestry,
00:01:09hunting and everything else that is an integral part of rural areas
00:01:13in this context and in this regard, and I think
00:01:16this can be a very forward-looking and
00:01:20good direction, so I encourage the representative of the government,
00:01:23the State Secretary, the Minister as well, I hope I can convince him
00:01:27with this, that yes, let's try to follow the Austrian model here,
00:01:31as this is a decidedly forward-looking example. Then
00:01:35let's see, if we are already in the 21st
00:01:38know if everyone noticed, but after century, then let's not just talk about dogmatic old 20th century, thousand-year-old
00:01:41things during farming, but let's look at digitalization, for example. How can
00:01:45to this, their attention was drawn to it, because digitalization be smuggled
00:01:49into everyday life for a farmer in a way that it makes his
00:01:53work easier, that it boosts his
00:01:56farming, because the less time he has to
00:02:00waste on bureaucratic labyrinths, the more time he
00:02:03will have, hopefully for his farm, but also for his family, so this
00:02:07farmer will be more balanced and, let's say, more motivated.
00:02:10Well, for example, applications are created
00:02:14has been the cornerstone of this that have practical benefits, for example, for plant protection products, for example,
00:02:18for machine parts procurement, for example,
00:02:21for cost calculations,
00:02:24calculations that he might not be able to determine
00:02:28and do so precisely on his own, or without help, but these
00:02:31applications help
00:02:33Now, among him with this, and we also have a farmer application, it has very
00:02:37positive and advantageous sides, but it also has many flaws that need to be eliminated,
00:02:41maybe it would be worth applying these positive examples
00:02:45to us as well, since we are talking about such applications,
00:02:48then what has been achieved
00:02:52with that strategic partnership that, say, the
00:02:56Austrian Chamber shows towards farmers, and
00:02:59how it tries to work with them, well, as I said,
00:03:02there are many very positive examples, but for me the
00:03:05most positive one is, for example, that among the EU member states,
00:03:09Austria is in the first place in the competition
00:03:12it won in the field of organic farming,
00:03:15argument for so we are talking about the country with the most organic farms,
00:03:18even though we know that Austria's
00:03:21geographical and topographical conditions differ a bit
00:03:25from ours, we know that even those areas
00:03:28are brought under agricultural cultivation, I'm not necessarily thinking of
00:03:32arable crop cultivation, which are often
00:03:35unimaginable, while here, even our best
00:03:38areas will soon be taken out of cultivation,
00:03:41not only due to infrastructure developments,
00:03:44not only due to booming industrial developments,
00:03:48but also because we simply don't treat our life-giving
00:03:51lands well, for some reason, the agricultural
00:03:54chamber, for example, hasn't set straight in the minds of farmers
00:03:58how to treat each area.
00:04:00"We see that water management is, for example, an extremely
00:04:04persecuted concept in Hungary, because the previous
00:04:07government had 16 years to implement historical
00:04:10water management, let's say, in our country,
00:04:13it seems that these 16 years were not
00:04:16necessarily at the agricultural chamber, but enough for this, I think that a very quick
00:04:18reaction is needed here, because this year has shown that it is not only
00:04:22agriculture that is affected in a terribly unfavorable way by this water shortage, but
00:04:30representative of Tisza, has renewal. It is not the change we also see it in the energy sector, in energy supply, I can cause very serious problems." Moreover, we see what social implications this drought
00:04:34had, since here in Budapest and in the immediate
00:04:37vicinity of the capital, a shortage of drinking water
00:04:40also occurred, and water supply problems also developed, so
00:04:44this is where it comes in that we are talking about a societal problem,
00:04:46this is where the context comes in that yes, the national
00:04:50agricultural chamber really has to deal with a lot of comprehensive problems,
00:04:54and this is where the umbrella organization's expectation comes in, that yes,
00:04:57it must be able to provide a very stable
00:05:01background for farmers, because this
00:05:03organization is designed to give
00:05:07Hungarian farmers a very strong advocacy capability,
00:05:10we can look at those European countries,
00:05:14let's say, who started thinking earlier
00:05:17or are ahead of us in the topic,
00:05:20because if I already brought up Austria as an example, then let's
00:05:24see what the perception of the farmer society is in our country.
00:05:26Well, if we look at it, we see that it has a rather
00:05:30devastating perception, I would add that, just like my hunting companions, many
00:05:33of my fellow farmers also do this, because from the subsidy, perhaps
00:05:37it's not the latest luxury Q7, or some new monstrous
00:05:40SUV running under the name Phantom, perhaps it's not this that should be
00:05:44bought, but rather the area-based or animal welfare
00:05:47or other subsidies they receive should be reinvested
00:05:50in their farms. Prejudices may also arise from this, but
00:05:54one thing is certain, in Austria they are trying to guide farmers that
00:05:58it's not necessarily the Q7 direction they should be moving in, but perhaps
00:06:01they should develop their farms a bit, perhaps they should stand on more legs, and
00:06:05thanks to this, and also thanks to the fact that, as I mentioned,
00:06:09these farms are also involved in education.
00:06:13cat: there is a very high social acceptance, a very high social
00:06:17recognition of farmers, and of the
00:06:19entire agricultural sector, and I think this is a good example, this is a
00:06:23direction to follow, we cannot support this bill in its
00:06:27current form, however, we are glad that
00:06:30there are forward-looking parts to it, and we will make our proposed amendments,
00:07:42about it, not only for the NAC, but it also contains a little bit of Jäger, the
00:07:46first one would be to Mr. Pap, that
00:07:50it was mentioned that the NAC spent 35 million forints on
00:07:53daily allowances for the Brussels
00:07:57demonstration,
00:07:59let everyone interpret that from public funds and farmer's
00:08:03money, the NAC sent people to a demonstration,
00:08:06which is a public body,
00:08:09so now a public body organizes people for
00:08:13a demonstration, and then we can imagine
00:08:16what happened there, and what happened in the past
00:08:20years, and ultimately who those people
00:08:23represented there, because it was also mentioned that an
00:08:27organization, Magosz, transported people, and
00:08:30it crushed 17 organizations
00:08:33under it, inter-branch organizations, there are not 17, there are many
00:08:37more, just to add,
00:08:41the other thing is, well, yes, it came up with everyone, interestingly
00:08:44enough, it was excluded from the
00:08:46NAC's scope of duties, because
00:08:50the advisory board's
00:08:53investigation came out,
00:08:56and I would quote two sentences from it,
00:08:59which is very important, the work of the advisory board
00:09:02of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, neither the NAC nor the ministry were involved, so this was a
00:09:06completely independent investigation, it clearly
00:09:10states that the operation of the Jäger
00:09:13cannot be held responsible for the drought
00:09:17of recent years, this is one sentence,
00:09:19and the other is that the operation of the Jäger
00:09:23has no significant effect exceeding
00:09:2610%, neither on the extent of
00:09:29hail damage, nor on the amount of
00:09:33precipitation. I think after this, the operation of the Jäger
00:09:37needs to be reconsidered, and that's why we removed it from the NAC's
00:09:39scope of duties, so that we can think it through and
00:10:25"Because of this, I will again run out of time, just in parentheses. Madam
00:10:28Speaker, esteemed National Assembly, dear fellow representatives, the
00:10:32true significance of the operation of the agricultural chamber and the amendment to the law
00:10:36is not only measurable in regulation, but also in the
00:10:39everyday lives of Hungarian farmers. As a Member of Parliament for the
00:10:43third constituency of Bács-Kiskun County and a former
00:10:47farmer, I myself see exactly what
00:10:50difficulties our farms,
00:10:54grape growers, and livestock farmers
00:10:57face. The livelihood of many families can
00:11:01depend on a single bad harvest, an unexpected frost damage, or
00:11:04prolonged subsidy procedures.
00:11:07It is important that the agricultural chamber
00:11:10provides real help to farmers, and that their everyday
00:11:14problems and interests are prioritized in decision-making.
00:11:18The goal is for Hungarian farmers
00:11:22to be able to continue their work under more predictable
00:11:25conditions with responsible support. I would also
00:11:28like to present a concrete example. A farmer from Kaskantyú
00:11:32recently turned to me for help after his farm suffered
00:11:35approximately 80% frost damage.
00:11:38Meanwhile, he encountered difficulties regarding the
00:11:41evaluation of his agricultural application, and the prolonged
00:11:44legal remedy procedure further increased his
00:11:48uncertainty. It is important to emphasize
00:11:51that this matter does not fall within the decision-making
00:11:55competence of the agricultural chamber, yet the case
00:11:58clearly shows why there is a need for a professional
00:12:01organization to which farmers can turn with
00:12:04confidence, which supports them with
00:12:07information, guidance, and meaningful professional help in
00:12:10difficult situations. Dear
00:12:13fellow representatives, the aim of the bill
00:12:17is to make the operation of the agricultural chamber more predictable,
00:12:20more efficient, and more professionally sound.
00:12:25This requires the clarification of the data in the chamber's
00:12:28membership register, the clear
00:12:32definition of tasks and responsibilities, but I consider it
00:12:34particularly important to also reduce
00:12:37chamber membership fees. Chamber membership
00:12:41should therefore not simply mean another mandatory
00:12:44payment. Farmers must feel
00:12:47that in exchange for their membership fee, they receive real
00:12:50services, professional support, and effective
00:12:53representation of interests. Equally important is the chamber's
00:12:57operation free from political influence.
00:12:59A grape grower from Kiskőrös or a farmer from Soltvadkert
00:13:03is not interested in what political
00:13:06conviction a chamber leader has, but rather whether
00:13:09they know the problems of agriculture, understand the
00:13:12situation of producers, and are able to effectively represent
00:13:16their interests. Therefore, professional
00:13:19aspects must take precedence in chamber
00:13:23decisions.
00:13:25Dear National Assembly, in my constituency, grape and
00:13:29wine production play a particularly important role. The
00:13:32producers of the Kunság wine region face serious
00:13:36challenges. Difficulties in the wine market,
00:13:40rising production costs, extreme
00:13:43weather, and an unpredictable economic
00:13:46environment all put them to the test.
00:13:49These problems cannot be solved by a single amendment to the law
00:13:53overnight. However, a well-functioning
00:13:57agricultural chamber can help ensure that producers are not
00:14:01left alone. That is why I consider it important
00:14:04to strengthen advisory, coordination, and electronic
00:14:07administration tasks.
00:14:11Farmers need quickly accessible, accurate
00:14:13information and practical help.
00:14:16We also need to ensure that digital
00:14:20administration does not pose another obstacle for older
00:14:23farmers. And young people should see a real future in Hungarian
00:14:27agriculture. Dear
00:14:30fellow representatives, the future of the Hungarian countryside
00:14:34also depends on whether we can maintain the trust of farmers, and
00:14:37whether we are able to create conditions under which the
00:14:41next generation will also undertake to continue family
00:14:45farms. For me, this is the real
00:14:48stake of the agricultural chamber's
00:14:51in positions or organizational structure itself
00:14:55that is important, but rather that the chamber gets closer to those
00:14:58for whom it was created. Therefore, I support the
00:15:02objectives of the bill.
00:15:05I would like farmers to be able to say in a few years, based on their own
00:15:08experiences, that administration has become easier, they receive
00:15:11more professional help, and they can truly count on the
00:15:14agricultural chamber, because the value of a professional
00:15:17interest representation is ultimately not determined by the number of its
00:15:20leaders, nor by its organizational structure.
00:15:24But by how much it does for farmers, and whether it earns their
00:15:28trust.
00:16:05a question: where is János Pócs? I was glad he finally came in,
00:16:07and we could have a professional, constructive
00:16:11debate, he doesn't attend committee meetings, so work
00:16:15could actually happen, he doesn't troll it at least, but now at least
00:16:18there would be an opportunity to talk about agriculture, he's the watermelon
00:16:22king of Jászság, we see him coming and going on small tractors,
00:16:26now we could be debating the agricultural situation, but he's not
00:16:29here, maybe we should translate for him not to
00:16:33grumble and
00:16:36such video glasses, or
00:16:38come in with binoculars, but then let's debate constructively
00:16:42at such times, you are silencing the
00:16:45politicization part here, I see you don't really want to go into
00:16:48this, what do I mean here?
00:16:50Here sits Zsolt Papp, Member of Parliament
00:16:54for Fidesz, who jumped directly from the position
00:16:57of president of the agricultural chamber to this seat where
00:17:01he is currently sitting, so I think no more is needed, but there is
00:17:05still more, because - during the campaign
00:17:09period, I myself, as a farmer, received a letter from the agricultural
00:17:12chamber, with Viktor Orbán's signature, I received this on the
00:17:16client gate, I also received it physically, in which, of course, the
00:17:19farmers were in danger, they were invited
00:17:23Tisza is attacking, Ukraine is attacking, Brussels is attacking, etc., and only you could protect
00:17:27the farmers, well, fortunately the farmers were also sensible, just like
00:17:30most of the country, nearly 3 and a half
00:17:33million people, so there will be complete renewal,
00:17:37there will be savings, there will be efficiency here too, we need to get used
00:17:40to these terms, also in the agricultural chamber, and there is absolutely
00:17:43positive reception from farmers, so those farmers I spoke to, real farmers who are
00:17:47currently in the fields, completely welcomed it, so this is
00:17:51a very good feedback for us, so finally there will be a representation
00:17:54that truly represents farmers, and not politics among
00:18:16Mr. State Secretary, I would like to respond to your contribution, and
00:18:20I consider it very important that you presented the
00:18:24position of that advisory body, which turned out to be
00:18:27academics and experts appointed by the academy,
00:18:31which stated that the hail damage forecasting
00:18:35system cannot be held responsible for
00:18:37the drought, I know that this will not reassure conspiracy theorists,
00:18:41and they will continue to think so, but it is very
00:18:44important that this has been professionally stated,
00:18:47however, in my opinion, it is not a sufficient
00:18:52stopping the system
00:18:55that it cannot be shown
00:18:58that hail damage will be reduced by more than
00:19:0210%. If it can only
00:19:05reduce it by 10%, I understand, Mr. State Secretary, Mr. Representative, that this
00:19:09is statistics, but if we can only reduce the number of
00:19:12affected people by 10%
00:19:15with this, or the extent of
00:19:17the damage, then it must continue to
00:19:21operate. For the farmer, the farmer
00:19:24whose entire year's harvest is taken away by hail,
00:19:28for him this is not statistics, for him the whole, so such
00:19:31a damage event like hail
00:19:33can put a whole year's work to waste.
00:19:37It can throw it in the bin, so if we can only
00:19:40help 10% of the people, that is precisely an
00:19:44argument for this system to remain, so I ask you,
00:19:47reiterating what I said in my contribution, that not
00:19:53the state, the government, should
00:20:17say a few words about politicization, because we haven't really heard about
00:20:21it from the other side, let's imagine a farmer from the villages
00:20:25around Pápa, he also has to be a member of
00:20:28the agricultural chamber, he pays his membership fee, in return the chamber
00:20:32supposedly represented his interests as well. Therefore,
00:20:35the farmer rightly believes and believed that the chamber is
00:20:39his, it works in his interest.
00:20:43However, according to the investigation, this money went to something else entirely. The
00:20:46chamber spent 182 million forints on Fidesz candidates'
00:20:50campaigns, it bused farmers, or activists disguised as farmers,
00:20:53to Viktor Orbán's speeches so that there would be someone to
00:20:57applaud. This cost 191 million forints.
00:21:01It transported people to foreign
00:21:04demonstrations with daily allowances. And the village farmers,
00:21:08who should have been helping with paperwork, collected
00:21:11email addresses, which, according to the chamber's audit,
00:21:14ended up with Fidesz. For years,
00:21:17farmers had to endure that the institution called the
00:21:20chamber degraded into a campaign machine
00:21:23with their money, and with
00:21:26the money of every taxpayer.
00:21:30Esteemed House, let's clarify what this
00:21:33law does. First, the chamber can no longer
00:21:36be in one person's hands. The president will change every six months,
00:21:40and the daily work will be carried out by a professional
00:21:44leader. Secondly, the leaders will not
00:21:46be leaders for salary, whoever takes on the... "will
00:21:50work for the farmers. Thirdly,
00:21:53the farmer will pay less
00:21:55membership fee. And let me state clearly, the chamber cannot
00:21:59belong to any single party. We are taking it out of Fidesz's hands
00:22:03so that it can return to where
00:22:28the change of regime, almost 40 years later, Mr. Papp, in the
00:22:31esteemed House, threw a Kádár, so he
00:22:34says that there were these perfectly democratic chamber
00:22:38elections, but somehow only one organization ran in them, well, then
00:22:42it was still possible to vote
00:22:48spring there will be not only parliamentary elections, but also agricultural chamber elections,
00:22:52which will take place on May 20, 2022.
00:22:55Magosz, like in previous victorious votes,
00:22:58will now run in the chamber elections
00:23:02as a nominating organization, in cooperation with former
00:23:06allies, representing all actors of Hungarian
00:23:09agriculture. The cooperation agreement between Magosz
00:23:13and the 17 allied organizations
00:23:16will be signed today. We
00:23:20are enclosing the cooperation agreement, and we continue to
00:23:23count on your support, best regards x, y. These
00:23:26organizations received quotas in the chamber. This was the
00:23:30subject of the deal. That's why everyone decided to sign
00:23:33for the sake of a sure quota, because otherwise they would have
00:23:37been suppressed anyway. They were promised positions in advance,
00:23:40and sure voting rights in the chamber, and
00:23:44actually, what is also a very
00:23:47important finding of this place.
00:23:54Strategic agreement, Viktor Orbán
00:23:57signed it personally, in which he states
00:24:00that such a strategic cooperation
00:24:04is entered into by the ruling party with farmer
00:24:06interest representation, well, ladies and gentlemen, this is how
00:24:10the agricultural chamber became Fidesz's lackey through Magosz,
00:24:14so I still have seven seconds, Mr. Latorcai
00:24:17has left, he says that in 2006 we abolished
00:24:21the chamber membership fee regarding the drought,
00:24:25why don't we do this in 2027, I humbly
00:24:47advocacy work is property. It's political work,
00:24:51and it can even be seen as the essence of
00:24:53politics, representing voters and
00:24:57even various professional
00:25:00groups. So I think it shouldn't be a sin if
00:25:03any political organization that forms for advocacy
00:25:07purposes cooperates with
00:25:10another advocacy organization, which, for example,
00:25:13represents the interests of farmers. It would be
00:25:17good if others also cooperated.
00:25:20As for the accusations against the farmers, one can say who
00:25:23traveled how, or didn't travel, but then they should back
00:25:27that up, because otherwise it's nothing more than empty political
00:25:30statements. Some, I'm not a lawyer, might
00:25:33even call this defamation. And as for
00:25:37the Brussels part of things, that
00:25:40farmers are participating in farmer demonstrations in Brussels, well,
00:25:44it's called advocacy, so they stand up in Brussels
00:25:48because of certain decisions, or... against certain decisions, against certain
00:25:52misguided Brussels policies.
00:25:55The Hungarian news also covered those
00:25:59farmer demonstrations that took place in Brussels. These were not
00:26:02random occurrences, not only in Hungary, but in many
00:26:05European countries, EU countries, people thought that
00:26:09Brussels was not adequately representing the
00:26:12interests of Hungarian and other European
00:26:15farmers. That's why it shouldn't be an evil
00:26:18thing to stand up for this, or to express an opinion against it.
00:26:22I see that you think of politics as just some
00:26:26formal thing, but it is about standing up for something if you don't like it.
00:26:29You can, and even must, stand up for it, whether you are a
00:26:33farmer or a
00:26:55mentioned the hailstorm system, well, you know, here we could say that the conspiracy theorist
00:26:59hit the mark and I took it personally, but I didn't take it personally. I would rather
00:27:03focus once again on the fact
00:27:06that you say that a farmer whose crop is destroyed by hail
00:27:09is completely at the mercy of it, and their work in that given year is worth nothing. Yes,
00:27:13there are insurers for this, there are agricultural insurances for this. So we don't need to operate a
00:27:16system that has caused antipathy among a large
00:27:20part of the farming community, and whose
00:27:23operation is controversial, but yes, there are
00:27:26agricultural insurances for this, there are agricultural insurers. The other thing
00:27:30I didn't have time to say in my normal speech,
00:27:33in my main speech, is what other terribly important task
00:27:36should the NAK have? I think that effective
00:27:40advocacy in legislation is perhaps the definition that
00:27:44is most important in this regard,
00:27:48because it could also put forward
00:27:50amendment proposals that, for example, on the basis of legal harmonization,
00:27:54would make the lives of farmers easier. There are
00:27:57many tangled issues, the untangling of which
00:28:00will only work if... these
00:28:03legal harmonization proposals are born out of collective
00:28:06wisdom and practical experience,
00:28:08and finally, perhaps the most important thing I
00:28:11forgot to mention is that we thank those whose work
00:28:16system, who have contributed with their work
00:28:20to enable the farming community and our fellow farmers
00:28:23to perform outstanding work. We thank them
00:28:27for their work, and we hope
00:28:52would like to ask a simple question:
00:28:55is it normal that the Hungarian taxpayers' money
00:28:59is spent on hundreds of millions of forints each year
00:29:02in Transylvania for the maintenance of agricultural organizations and village farmer
00:29:06networks, while in the Hungarian countryside,
00:29:09especially in border regions, we are still struggling with
00:29:13serious development deficiencies?
00:29:16The history of the Transylvanian Hungarian farmers'
00:29:18organizations did not begin today.
00:29:22The Transylvanian Agricultural Association, founded in 1844,
00:29:26served Hungarian farmers for many decades.
00:29:29After Trianon, it remained an important institution
00:29:32for the survival of Hungarians, and then
00:29:35after 1990, the Association of Hungarian
00:29:38Farmers in Romania continued this legacy.
00:29:42The turning point came in 2017-18,
00:29:45when the Hungarian government established
00:29:49the Carpathian Basin Village Farmer Program,
00:29:52for which it allocated more than 400 million
00:29:56forints in its first year, and since then, an additional
00:29:59hundreds of millions flow in annually.
00:30:03According to the document, the annual cost of the program approaches
00:30:07300 million forints, without various
00:30:10additional program supports. Today,
00:30:13three separate organizations operate the network: the
00:30:17Pro Agricultura Association, the Association of Szekler
00:30:21Farmers, and the Satmar Rural Development
00:30:24Association. Together, they employ more than 60 village farmers
00:30:28from the Hungarian budget.
00:30:31The problem is not supporting Hungarian farmers beyond
00:30:35the border. The problem is when professional
00:30:39considerations are replaced by political considerations.
00:30:42According to the document that reached me, the
00:30:46Association of Hungarian Farmers in Romania, which previously played a central
00:30:49role, was gradually sidelined, and
00:30:53the operation of the network was given to organizations
00:30:57whose leaders in several cases
00:31:00also held RMDSZ positions.