Minister Gulyás: Government very optimistic about economy, Trump follows Orbán’s policies
The government is optimistic as the Hungarian economy is set to grow markedly, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said at a weekly press briefing on Thursday. Gulyás said an assessment in an analysis presented by the national economy minister at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday gave “reason for optimism”. On another subject, Gulyás said the government “is ensuring security at schools”, adding that an investigation had started concerning multiple bomb threats at schools earlier in the day.
Higher domestic consumption
Concerning the economy, Gulyás pointed to “tangible” indications of an economic turnaround and said chances for the war in Ukraine to end within the foreseeable future were “much greater than at any other time in the past”. He noted that the employment numbers hit a record 4.7 million, while real wages were on the rise, consumption and retail sales were increasing, and retail lending stock was growing.
Growth trends will be reinforced by the government’s new economic policy action plan, he added. Gulyás said real wages had increased by around 10 percent in Hungary last year, though he noted that the final figures were not yet available. The three-year agreement between the government, employers, and employees ensures another 5-6 percent increase in 2025, he added. He also noted that “the middle class and the poorest” had benefitted the most, with an increase exceeding 15 percent.
Higher domestic consumption, Gulyás said, also gave rise to optimism: in the first three quarters of last year consumption increased by 4.1 percent, the fifth highest ratio in the EU. Retail trade has been on the increase for 13th months in a row, and domestic tourism “broke all records”, he added.
Trump follows the policies of the Orbán cabinet, said Gulyás
The number of mortgages increased by over one third in 2024, while the sales of new and second-hand cars also increased, the minister said. Once the war in Ukraine is over, not only would energy prices improve but “a number of other areas” in the economy would also benefit, he said, adding? “We have good reason to be optimistic.” Meanwhile, Gulyás said the executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump were in line with the steps taken by the Hungarian government over the past decade.
“What Trump is doing in the United States is what we’ve been doing over here for years,” he said. Gulyás said Hungary and the US now shared the same positions on the issues of border protection and immigration and gender policy.
According to Gulyás, Hungary is in a better situation than the US in terms of migration, because “we have not had a long Democrat government and the country did not allow just anyone to enter; neither does Hungary need to find ways to remove those people from the country.” Hungary’s border controls “ensure that migrants cannot come into Hungary,” he said, adding however that “Brussels is punishing Hungary” for its border control system.
Meanwhile, commenting on “gender policy”, Gulyás said its number one advocate in Hungary had been the US ambassador in recent years. He added that the new US administration, however, planned to enact “the biological principle that humans are either male or female”.
Slovakia shares the same position as Hungary
Regarding NGOs, Gulyás said the US no longer supported “Soros organisations and networks” and could suspend their financing. Gulyás said that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has briefed the cabinet of his Tuesday visit to Bratislava. Not only are Hungary and Slovakia good neighbours, they also share the same position on major issues affecting European politics, he said.
The two governments were “a sober voice in European politics”, especially regarding enlargement policy, he said, adding: “Hungary stands in solidarity with Slovakia.”
Regarding Ukraine, Gulyás said that as an EU membership candidate, the country “cannot deliberately take measures that make the energy supply of EU member states impossible”. Accession is also conditional on respecting national and minority rights, he said. “Ukraine is either misinterpreting its own position or it does not really mean to join the EU,” he added.
US-Hungary ties expected to be better than ever
Asked about the government’s expectations after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Gulyás said bilateral ties were expected to be better than ever.
The US government, he said, placed protection of its own economy in first place and would want to change “all economic cooperations where it is in the red”. That can happen by agreements or tariffs, Gulyás said, adding that Hungary would prefer an deal since tariffs on the EU would harm Hungary, too.
Europe must negotiate an agreement with the US and find ways to reduce the US deficit, he said. “I’m not saying we should be blithely optimistic … but let’s hope we can achieve an agreement with the US, as President Trump wants a deal first and foremost.” Asked whether the fact that Trump had already started expelling illegal migrants would have an effect on EU policies, Gulyás said: “I hope it will.” The majority of EU governments had changed their stance on migration lately, he said.
Agreement with Russia on the horizon
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Gulyás said the US aimed to broker peace and an agreement with Russia. Europe should be a part of that work as the results would directly affect its own security, he added. At the same time, “whenever Europe follows US instructions slavishly, it betrays its own interests,” he added.
Gulyás said Trump was looking for a way to end the war as quickly as possible and wanted to negotiate with the Russian president. “[Trump] said that if there is no agreement, there’s another way, through more conflict.”
So far “Europe has done the opposite”, Gulyás said, adding that the EU had refused to negotiate with the Russian president. “Neither did it make an effort to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table”, but issued sanctions, he said. Gulyás said the Hungarian government long held the view that sanctions had harmed Europe more than Russia, and argued for the policy of sanctions to be abandoned.
Trump-Orbán meeting comes
Gulyás said that now the EU would have to reconsider its policies in view of the new US approach. So far sanctions were extended automatically, “but it is different this time”, Gulyás said. Regarding a future meeting between Orbán and Trump, Gulyás said a meeting was planned but no date has been set as yet.
Responding to another question, Gulyás said he expected Antal Rogán, the minister who heads the cabinet office, to be removed from the sanctions list of the US soon. In response to a question, Gulyás said the US entry ban on Rogán was not on the agenda of this week’s cabinet meeting, adding that the government knew for certain that the cabinet office chief was not accused of anything. He said Rogán did not have any assets in the US, “so there wasn’t even a risk that he’d incur any loss”.
Gulyás slammed Budapest’s leadership
Asked about the project to transform the area around the Rákosrendező train station and rail yard in Budapest’s 14th district, Gulyás said it was justifiable to want to know what would be built there, adding that the construction and transport minister had spoken about this.
He said the Budapest metropolitan council had not expressed an opinion on how this area should be put to use, and had never made an offer to buy it or engaged in talks about it. The city council, he added, had not even offered to help move the waste from the site.
“But now that the government wants to put the area to use, the metropolitan council is suddenly showing interest in it and saying that it would have no problem paying the purchase price, while also saying that the government is bankrupting the city,” Gulyás said.
Rákosrendező agreement is about a multi-hundred billion forint development
He said the agreement with the UAE investors was about a multi-hundred billion forint development in an area of the city that had been neglected, which would ease housing problems, create jobs and generate tax revenue and was ultimately good for the capital. He said it was worth discussing the scope of the construction project, “but transforming a polluted, waste-filled area where no one has done anything for 30 years into a development area is good and is also in the city’s interest”.
Gulyás underlined that the UAE government did not have the right to determine who could exercise pre-emption rights. He explained that the Hungarian government has signed an agreement with the UAE according to which the UAE will bring an investor to Hungary that will spend hundreds of billions of forints to transform a given area. “We’re the ones making the decision to work with an international investor,” he said, adding that the international agreement superseded any pre-emption rights.
Gulyás said he had no knowledge of any financial transactions between the contracting parties, adding that both the investor and Budapest had in interest in normalising their relationship.
120 metres is the tallest possible building in Budapest
Asked how tall the proposed buildings in the redeveloped area would be, Gulyás noted that under the construction law, buildings cannot be taller than 90 meters. Gulyás cited János Lázár, the construction minister, as saying that “the tallest he could imagine is 120 metres”, which he agreed with. The government will discuss the plans with the developer in detail, whose point of reference will have to be the Hungarian legal environment, Gulyás said.
In response to a question, he said the government had not seen a reason to consult with the Budapest city council on whether it wanted to exercise its pre-emption rights before the sale, arguing that the city “had no plans with that area for 34 years”.
Asked about Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony’s suggestion that the solidarity tax had been unlawfully charged to the city council’s account, Gulyás said there were clear rulings issued by the Constitutional Court and a court declaring that the city had an obligation “to show solidarity, and this is the case”.
Asked about Ukraine’s decision to halt the transit of Russian gas through its territory, Gulyás said the EU was an alliance and recent “negative experience” showed that “countries that have a tendency to be hostile towards their own allies shouldn’t be EU members”.
Ethnic rights in Ukraine need to be restored
He said Ukraine had still not restored the acquired rights of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, and was also “deliberately threatening” the region’s energy security. He said Hungary had reminded Ukraine that its EU membership was not “a given”, and that its admission to the bloc would also need to be approved by Hungary and Slovakia.
In response to a question, Gulyás said there was a “rule-of-law crisis” in Poland, arguing that the government there was ignoring the Constitutional Court’s rulings, questioning the status of judges, refusing to comply with court rulings and ignoring lawmakers’ immunity. “This sort of thing has never happened in Europe,” he said. “If someone requests asylum in a situation like this, their request must be assessed and they must be granted asylum if they meet the criteria.”
He said Poland’s response to Hungary’s decision to grant political asylum to the former Polish justice minister was “unusual in diplomacy, ineffective” and “grossly impolite”.
Asked about a recent poll showing that the opposition Tisza Party was ahead of ruling Fidesz, Gulyás said: “There are those who poll voters and there are those who publish voters’ preferences without polling them.”
Asked about Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis’s Facebook post calling on the German authorities to turn over to Hungary the antifa activists suspected of having carried out violent attacks on the streets of Budapest in 2023, Gulyás said that since the suspects had committed the attacks in Hungary, Germany was expected to turn them over in line with European cooperation in legal assistance.
Shortfall in VAT revenues
Commenting on the investigation against the head of the Integrity Authority, Gulyás said the head of the authority, like everyone else, was innocent until proven guilty. Asked about a 1,200 billion forint shortfall in VAT revenues, Gulyás said it was “bad news for the budget” but “looking at the background, it may not be that bad because people’s savings have increased.” Last year, real wage growth was around ten percent, “which everyone can spend as they wish, and consumption growth was significant, at four percent.”
University tuition fees and salaries
Asked why the government had cut the number of state-financed scholarships in higher education, Gulyás said the total number had actually increased, adding that “it is at the ministry’s discretion to determine in which areas more or fewer [state-financed] places are needed.” In 2025, there are 87,175 state scholarships, while this number was 75,730 last year, he added.
Concerning a possible pay rise for employees in higher education, Gulyás said wages “in some areas in the public sector” were “lower than they should be”, adding that the government was determined to increase those wages, “the economy permitting”.
Meanwhile, asked about the US decision to pull out of the World Health Organisation, Gulyás said the WHO “made the mistake of publishing documents which proposed global governance after the covid pandemic, which gave the goosebumps to any normal person for whom sovereignty matters.” It is good to have a global organisation at times of epidemics to coordinate best practices such as the procurement of vaccines, he said, adding that WHO would face difficulties as “the US has so far contributed 18 percent of its budget”. But even without the US, the WHO would manage to pursue its activities, while the Hungarian government has not made a decision to quit the organisation, he added.
Jewish organizations could not agree
Concerning the House of Fates museum in Budapest, Gulyás said the facility had not been opened to the public “due to a lack of understanding between Hungary’s Jewish organisations”. He said the property would be sold by the state, but being a museum “there are constraints” around the sale.
Asked about Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent holiday in India, Gulyás said “not publishing reports on the trip does not mean that it has been kept secret … the prime minister is entitled to go on holiday and take a rest.” Gulyás also mentioned the possibility of releasing any information withheld for security reasons later if warranted.
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