Top Fidesz MP says Hungary will not default - report

"Hungary will not default", Janos Lazar, parliamentary group leader of governing Fidesz said in an interview with fn.hir24.hu on Wednesday.

Asked if there was a possible backup plan for a default on Hungary’s state debt, Mr Lazar said Hungary had been a member of the International Monetary Fund for three decades and had always, and would continue, to repay what it owed.

Asked about speculation that the resignation of either the prime minister or National Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy would be necessary to win back the confidence of financial markets, Mr Lazar said the markets "want money, not names".

 "The money markets decide on money and the voters decide on MPs. This is the order of democracy and economics, and we have no reason to assume these should be changed," he added.

Mr Lazar said Prime Minister Viktor Orban had told Fidesz MPs that there would be no cabinet reshuffle in January.

"We’ll reach the half-way mark of our cycle in July. As is generally known, governments usually build in the first half of their mandate and run, or conjure the building, or in our case the new government structure in the second half. New people could arrive to take on this task and obviously a new style too," he said.

Mr Lazar said Viktor Orban was the only person capable of keeping Fidesz together. "There is no other integrating person capable of leading whom both the party right and left sides can accept," he added.