PM Orbán: Hungary’s PM suspects conspiracy of multinational supermarkets behind the raising prices

Supermarkets are acting like speculators by raising prices when there is no basis to do so, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio on Friday.

While the country is fighting inflation, especially food price rises, “there are those who aren’t participating in the battle and are indeed taking advantage of the situation”, he said. Hiking prices of imported food, he added, was “totally unjustified and unacceptable”. Action would be taken against “profiteering”, even if this may cause the government problems with the EU.

Brussels, Orbán insisted, was undermining government attempts to “protect the people”, and speculators were “colluding with Brussels bureaucrats”. He said consumer protection authorities had already levied 3 billion forints (EUR 8m) in fines, adding that action must be intensified.

Great potential in cooperation with Romania, Slovakia

Hungarian cooperation with Romania and Slovakia carries “great potential”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio on Friday. Commenting on reactions to his recent speech at the Balvanyos Free Summer University, Orbán said he had met his Romanian counterpart and was keen to develop a good relationship with him. He said the new prime minister was “young, strong and agile”, and “I think we can do some serious things together,” he added.

Commenting on Slovakia, Orbán noted the country would be staging a general election in September. Referring to conflicting interpretations of post-war history, the prime minister said the two countries would not be able to “grind the mill” towards a harmonious position and the matter was best left to historians. It would be a mistake to allows this issue to dominate Slovakia-Hungary relations, he added.