Hungary may drop its foreign residents scheme

Hungary is to scrap a euro-denominated residency bond programme which attracted thousands of mostly Chinese investors but drew criticism from the far-right opposition party Jobbik.

An aide to Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the scheme, which guarantees residency for at least five years to foreigners buying a bond for up to 300,000 euros, was no longer required because of an upturn in Hungary's financial outlook.
But Jobbik had warned it would not back the government's planned amendment to the constitution to ban the resettlement of migrants in Hungary unless Orban abolished the residency bond scheme which was introduced three years ago.
With Jobbik's parliamentary support, Orban should be able to secure the two-thirds majority for passing the amendment.
Orban's government has pushed ahead with the law after a referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Hungarians who voted had rejected EU migrant quotas, but with too low a turnout for the vote to be binding.
Orban's chief of staff, Janos Lazar, told a news conference that the decision to review the residency bond programme had nothing to do with Jobbik's "blackmailing" and the review of the programme had been under way for...

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