Hungary needs an IMF/EU financing agreement and will agree with international lenders but the lenders' initial set of policy proposals are unacceptable, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio today (7 September). Before that, he "unfriended" the IMF on Facebook and posted a video slamming its demands.

Orbán, whose government started loan talks with the International Monetary Fund and the EU in July after months of delays (see background), poured cold water on hopes for a fast agreement by saying the IMF had made a raft of demands that he could not agree to.

Fidesz is all about communication, so it's worth to point out that this was preceded by the release of a list of supposed IMF demands by the main pro-Fidesz daily, and the list was partly made up. But, I am beginning to think that there is a strategy behind Orbán's incoherent line: he keeps up talks with the IMF and the European Commission while simultaneously dissing them to keep markets in limbo and thus avoid a concerted market attack.

In the greater scheme of things, the Orbá government's economic policy is still smoke and mirrors and a failure rather than a real departure from consensus. The recession is now official here, too. The freedom fighter pose also masks austerity measures hitting the poor they introduced on their own. And the Orbán government's search for new less than democratic allies to the East hasn't brought real benefits. For example, there was this:

BBC News - Azeri killer Ramil Safarov: Nato chief 'concerned'

Nato's secretary-general has expressed concern over a decision by Azerbaijan to pardon an army officer convicted of the brutal murder of an Armenian.

Ramil Safarov hacked a man to death with an axe in Hungary in 2004 and was imprisoned there until last week, when he was extradited to Azerbaijan.

He was expected to serve out the rest of his life sentence, but was instead promoted, and given a flat to live in.

The Armenian parliament has now formally suspended ties with Hungary.

The hand-over deal was brokered in secret, without even consulting the foreign minister. All of this reportedly in hopes of bonds purchases which didn't come (and oil deals which are illusory with Nabucco practically dead).

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}