Hungary’s budget was found to be in a “dramatically poor state” following the handover of power, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said in a video posted on Facebook on Monday.
Orbán government left ruins
Mr Magyar noted that the government had held a three-day informal meeting over the weekend in Pilisszentkereszt, where ministers discussed strategic issues set to shape Hungary’s coming years. “From morning until evening, we worked to assess the damage left behind by the Orbán government, and to ensure that from this dreadful starting position we not only rescue Hungary, but finally set it on a genuine path of development,” he said.
The Prime Minister added that discussions covered the conditions for restarting the Hungarian economy, the fate of major investment projects, the initial findings of ongoing audits, the state of public media, foreign policy tasks, illegal migration, the budget, national security, the functioning of ministries, and the timetable for the months ahead.
Hungary’s budget deficit much higher than Orbán cabinet communicated
“We found Hungary’s budget in a dramatically poor condition after the transition. The irresponsibility with which the previous government handled the Hungarian people’s money is quite shocking. The deficit figures publicly stated by the failed Orbán administration, or set out in official documents, bear no relation to what we are now seeing,” he said.
He claimed that the public had been misled with deficit projections of 3.7 per cent, later revised to 5 per cent, while the government’s own apparatus had already been calculating with a 6.8 per cent shortfall. Following the audit, he said, it is now clear that the real deficit for 2026 would exceed 8 per cent were it not for the repatriation of EU funds by the Tisza government, and could still remain above 7 per cent even with those funds — amounting to several thousand billion forints.
Orbán manipulated the figures
“Viktor Orbán lied and manipulated the figures in the same way Ferenc Gyurcsány once did. Fidesz collapsed the budget in such a way that the cost would not fall on its own tenure, but on Tisza and the Hungarian people,” he said. Mr Magyar added that similarly poor conditions had been found in the legacy of the ministry formerly led by János Lázár, with Hungary’s infrastructure — its roads, bridges and railways — in a severely degraded state. He cited the example that 91 bridges were already in critical condition at the point of transition.
Péter Magyar sends message to public interest asset management foundations
He also said that the government had addressed the issue of public interest asset management foundations during the weekend session. “I again call on the boards of trustees of foundations due to be dissolved by August 31 to refrain from taking any decisions, entering into commitments, signing contracts or making any legal declarations affecting the value, composition or ownership of the state assets allocated to them,” he said.
If you missed: PM Péter Magyar’s first 50 days: promise and reality
He urged such foundations to limit their activities strictly to routine operations necessary for their intended functioning. “Anyone who nevertheless attempts at the last moment to transfer public assets into private hands will face both criminal and civil liability. We will protect the assets of the Hungarian state,” he added.
Mr Magyar said ministers were united in their view that there was no time to waste: the budget must be stabilised, investment policy reset on new foundations, and the ongoing “clean-up operation” continued. “We will protect the assets of the Hungarian people and carry through the audits and the process of accountability,” he said.
Update – Magyar: Previous govt deliberately misled country
The previous government had deliberately misled the country and the people, PM Magyar said on Monday ahead of parliament’s agenda. Magyar compared the previous cabinet’s budget policy to Russian roulette. While the Orbán government “lied” to the Hungarian people about this year’s 3.7pc, then 5pc budget deficit, the state apparatus was already using a 6.8pc figure in April, he said.
Today we can already see that if the Tisza government did not bring home “the EU trillions“, the budget would show perhaps the largest deficit ever, with a rate approaching 8.3pc of GDP, he added. Magyar said the previous government acted consciously, calculatingly, and with irresponsibility beyond his imagination for years. They based the revenue side of the budget on EU sources that they knew would not come in due to Orban’s corruption, and left the new government with obligations worth thousands of billions of forints.
At the weekend’s informal government meeting, the cabinet members searched for logic, meaning, and social benefit behind the previous government’s decisions with good intentions and then increasingly despairingly, but they found none, the PM said.
Is this the beginning of the end for Orbán’s Fidesz? New poll shows devastating numbers for them
