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In Iran, it was long concealed that the epidemic would rage, until the country quickly became one of the most infected countries in the world. Although the coronavirus was expected to spread to Hungary from Italy, it reached Hungary from the Persian country, which started wave zero. Meanwhile, the government gained full authority, we became familiar with the curfew restrictions, free parking came, the government didn’t tend to close schools for a long time, and then one day they intervened. Putin won all power, New York emptied, the stock markets collapsed, Lebanon went bankrupt. These were the most important events of March 2020.
The epidemic reached Hungary on March 4 and two Iranian students were found to have a coronavirus infection from China. The students studying at the SOTE were immediately segregated and the search for their contacts began, although it was later revealed that not all their classmates had been contacted at the university, they were finally quarantined at the St. László Hospital, and the institutions higher education institutions in the country began to inform their students about various epidemiological norms. while not the government decided to close the dormitories.
The Hungarian state has decided to suspend the issuance of visas to Iran, which was more than timely: after China, the epidemic really broke out here, because the local authorities did not provide adequate information for a long time. The flights also stopped only at the end. The Persian New Year, or Noruz, had already officially hit the country with 18,407 infected, and 1,284 of them died from the infection. Iran fled the curfew for the holidays, but the epidemic curve only reached a plateau in April.
The photos of the dead have arrived
Italy had already introduced restrictions in the northern regions in February, but this also did not stop the spread of the virus, with the corona virus appearing in the central and southern provinces in early March. As of March 8, 14 northern and central provinces were bribed, but it took three weeks for cases to begin to decline. The world has traveled with photos of the collapsed Italian healthcare, especially the Bergamo hospital, where separate rooms have already been evacuated for the dead to store. It has also become very clear here that if such a hub emerges in Europe, the downtime could cause severe economic damage to the developed world, and the Italian epidemic crisis has played a major role in keeping the world afloat afterwards. of small setbacks and rebounds. leading stock exchanges. Until then, all closed military checkpoints were introduced on the roads.
Black Monday
On March 9, before the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,300 points, oil prices began to plummet, and the latter was such an intense crash that for the first time since the Great Oil Crisis, the futures market had to be suspended for 15 minutes. By the end of the day, DJIA had lost more than 2,000 points, the biggest intraday drop in history. Oil companies Chevron and ExxonMobil lost about 15 percent through closing. Tech stocks looked more resilient, but during the day the Nasdaq Composite also began to decline, weakening by more than 620 points, bringing the S&P 500 to 7.6 percent. Yields on the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bills fell below 0.40 percent and 1.02 percent, respectively.
The crisis has not quarantined the United States: the Canadian S & P / TSX Composite Index ended the day more than 10 percent deep. 12 percent of IBOVESPA in Brazil was burned, and ASX 200 in Australia closed with a 7.3 percent slap. Then Europe also took the floor: London’s FTSE 100 weakened 7.7 percent, the CAC 40 and DAX 11.2 and 8.4 percent, respectively. STOXX Europe 600 fell more than 20 percent from the previous year’s peak.
Meanwhile, the epidemic also reached New York, where it was soon decided to close schools and then ban curfews.
Lebanon collapsed for the first time
Although the epidemic did not actually reach the country, Lebanon was in a better position in a pandemic situation than neighboring Israel, yet its economy was the first to collapse. On March 9, they declared bankruptcy and asked the IMF for help. The state has been in a political crisis since October 2019, first he resigned by Prime Minister Hassan Sahir, and then his successor inherited the currency and economic crisis: already when he took power, he was sure that Lebanon would not be able to return a Eurobond of 1,200 million dollars (360,000 million HUF). debt. Prime Minister Hassan Diab said when declaring bankruptcy of the state that “it was not an easy decision, but Lebanon’s debt is higher than the country can handle.” At that time, public debt in the Middle East had reached 170 percent of gross domestic product.
The demonstrations became more and more intense, there was practically no cash in the country, but at least nothing could be obtained from banks and ATMs. Although they contacted the IMF, there appeared to be little chance of a quick settlement because the corruption situation in Lebanon became so dire that the state and bribery were not synonymous, and the two words could not be used separately.
Putin has decided to remain president forever
The Russian president announced on January 15 that he would reshape his government and initiate a constitutional reform. At first, it seemed that at the end of his current presidential term, in 2024, he wanted to step back from power and continue to rule his country from the bottom. He then appeared in front of the Duma on March 10 to give a formal speech on what the legislature should do, but instead it turned out that the constitutional amendment would be used with a special trick to remain Russia’s head of state until 2036. Valentyina Tyereskova, the world’s first female astronaut, MP, proposed that with the adoption of the new constitution, the counterattack of the presidential terms should start from scratch. So, if, more precisely, Putin wants this: when – the constitutional reform comes into force, Putin’s previous cycles will be abolished and he will be able to run for the post of head of state in 2024 and 2030, respectively.
If there was no epidemic, the referendum would have been held within a month, but the epidemic began to bring Russia to the ground, so in the end the decision was left only for a July referendum. It was of no great significance, just an impetus to formally recognize Putin as the all-powerful lord of today’s Russian state.
There were also curfew restrictions in Hungary
The epidemic began slowly at home, but then the government took action on March 27, that day 39 new infections were found in 24 hours, with a total of 300 patients in the country. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán therefore announced that from the next day a curfew will be imposed on the entire territory of Hungary between March 28 and April 11: you can work and shop, only the elderly can enter in stores open between 9 and 12 noon.
So far, the government has focused more on the economic side of the pandemic, with support measures already in place on March 18, according to which:
- First, the obligation to pay principal and interest on the loans contracted by companies and individuals was suspended until March until the end of the year.
- Short-term business loans were extended through June 30.
- The APR on consumer loans contracted in mid-March peaked at more than 5 percent of the central bank’s base rate.
- They provided assistance to the most affected sectors: tourism, hotels, taxi drivers, cultural and sports services. Employers’ contribution obligations were temporarily eliminated entirely, employee contributions were also significantly reduced, and the health contribution rate was reduced to the legal minimum.
- In critical sectors, it was not possible to raise rents and terminate contracts.
- According to the kata (itemized tax for small taxpayers), flat-rate taxation of taxi drivers was suspended until June 30.
- The contribution to tourism development also did not have to be paid during this period.
- They have changed the employer-employee relationship, opting for more flexible employee contract rules to facilitate negotiation of the parties.
However, there was a broader debate that the government had brought the empowerment law to parliament – this essentially enabled regulatory governance, meaning that certain provisions of parliament could be ignored with subsequent parliament approval or replaced by new regulations. The law empowers the government to take emergency measures outside the law in times of emergency to ensure human health, legal security and economic stability. The opposition saw a risk in this, as the scope of the Authorization Law was not tied to a deadline. In the end, the passes were not even voted on.
The government, on the other hand, relied on a swift response, so on March 30, a two-thirds majority of Fidesz-KDNP passed the law. The next day, the first foreign criticism arrived, fearing the Hungarian rule of law that the law was not tied to an expiration date. With this, a new foreign policy dispute erupted between the Viktor Orbán government and EU leaders, but even aspiring presidential candidate Bernie Sanders pointed out his concerns to Budapest leaders in a letter.
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