PM Orbán: illegal migrants will appear in Budapest again if Péter Magyar wins

The leftist leadership of Budapest has pushed the richest city in the country into bankruptcy, “and would no doubt do the same with the country if it was entrusted to them,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Budapest on Tuesday, at his Fidesz party’s meeting to elect candidates for the upcoming elections. He also said that provided Péter Magyar won the elections in April migrants would flood Budapest’s streets.

Orbán: the government built Budapest

In the past 15 years, the government had been building in Budapest, while their opponents only obstructed them, he said.

Orbán said that Fidesz’s support in rural areas was uncontested even by their opponents. At the same time, they talk of Fidesz’s ties with the capital as if it was lagging behind its support elsewhere, he said. “The actual situation is that the Budapest community is the largest within Fidesz, there are hundreds of party members here,” he said.

“There is no Fidesz governance or Fidesz-KDNP parliamentary majority, and especially no supermajority without a strong Budapest Fidesz,” he said.

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Had Fidesz not “found common ground” with Budapest inhabitants, they would not have won the mayoral elections twice, or several district elections, he said, adding that the party had no reason to “consider Budapest a lost cause”.

Buda Castle, sports, schools, clinics, metro

Citing recent development projects in Budapest, Orbán said that over the past 15 years, the government had invested 3 trillion forints (EUR 7.8bn) in developing the capital. Parks, sports halls, schools, clinics, and hospitals have been renovated thanks to the work of the Hungarian government, he added.

“We have hosted several world championships in water sports, we have had the World Athletics Championships, we have had the Champions League quarter-finals, and soon we will have the final,” Orbán said. City Park and Kossuth Square have been renovated, and the Buda Castle is under reconstruction, he added.

He said that “after left-wing backroom deals,” the Fidesz government completed Metro Line 4 instead of Budapest and participated in the renovation of Metro Line 3. “We have created one of Europe’s best public transport systems in Budapest,” he said, expressing his regret that the current city administration was unable to take advantage of the opportunity.

Budapest is rich and safe

The nominal GDP per capita was 53,000 dollars in Budapest in 2024, up from 29,000 dollars in 2010, he said. That amounted to 102 percent of the EU average in 2024, he added.

“Budapest is a shining example of the fact that even those not voting for us, the Fidesz government, are benefitting from us,” he said.

Budapest is one of the safest cities in Europe “because there is no Islam radicalism here.” Jewish families and communities “are the safest in Budapest in the whole of Europe,” he added.

Orbán said the developments under the current city leadership were a “great disappointment”. “Despite all government support and development, Budapest has become an ailing capital stumbling from ailment to ailment. This is not the capital Hungarians deserve,” he said.

Tax revenues doubled

Corporate tax revenues have nearly doubled in the past years. More than 40 percent of the country’s corporate tax revenues are generated in Budapest, while only 17 percent of its inhabitants live in the city, he said.

“There is always money left for irregularly disbursed bonuses, and then comes the begging, whining and incompetence,” he said. “While one problem comes after the other, there is always place for a Ukrainian flag and a Pride flag at City Hall.”

Meanwhile, he said “it has also been shown what it’s like when Tisza is part of the leftist governance: the party has assisted to the city’s insolvency even as it voted for speeding up the migration pact in Brussels.”

“Tisza’s participation in a leftist government would mean that migrants would appear again in Budapest streets,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fidesz’s opponents in the EU have voted in favour of an EU budget “which means that the war must be continued and the support for Ukraine increased.” “Ukraine has recently requested another 800 billion euros.”

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Winning in Budapest in April

Orbán said that 390,000 Budapest citizens voted for Fidesz at the 2022 parliamentary election and “Fidesz was the strongest party at the latest European parliamentary elections.” He praised the work of branch leader Alexandra Szentkirályi in renewing the Budapest branch.

“We have a chance of winning in Budapest as well as in rural areas… Our candidates are strong, competent and know what they’re doing.”

Budapest citizens can rely on Fidesz to do what they promised: “There will be no tax hikes, and Hungarians’ money will not be sent to Ukraine, and our children will not be drafted [to fight] in a foreign country.”

Government drains cash from Budapest

Orbán loves to boast that Budapest’s revenues have doubled—but he conveniently skips the inconvenient truth. That apparent windfall? It’s been gobbled up by EU-champion inflation, while the government has rocketed the solidarity tax to the stratosphere. Back in 2018, Budapest forked out just HUF 5 billion. Fast-forward to 2026, and it’s nearly HUF 100 billion—a staggering 20-fold surge. Even Orbán admits city revenues have only doubled. So where’s the extra cash going? Straight into central government coffers.

Meanwhile, the polls paint a grim picture for Fidesz. Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party are surging ahead, especially in Budapest and other municipalities. Experts slam the government’s gerrymandered boundaries as a desperate ploy, but it’s unlikely to save them. Fidesz faces an uphill battle to snag even a single constituency in the capital.

Mayor Karácsony: Budapest ‘city of free, independent, confident citizens’

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was right “for once”, when he said that Budapest was a city of free, independent and confident citizens, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook on Tuesday. “He is also right that Fidesz finds a difficult terrain everywhere where there is freedom, where independence is valued, and where a sense of self-worth is the starting point.”

“That is why anti-Budapest politics aiming to destroy freedom, dismantle independence, and damages the citizens is not worthy of the trust of Budapest citizens,” Karácsony said.