PM Orbán talked about the importance of abolishing the EU’s anti-Russia sanctions

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary’s economic troubles were, “without exception”, the result of the war in Ukraine and its consequences in a weekly interview with public radio on Friday.

USA pro-peace

Orbán said the government had submitted a “peacetime” budget bill to lawmakers and augured a “fantastic”, “unprecedented” 2025.

As well as acknowledging the need for peace from the humane and Christian perspective, Orbán pointed to the impact of the war on Hungary’s economy and Hungarians’ incomes and quality of life. “The right thing to do is to end the war as soon as possible,” he said.

According to the prime minister, the European Union’s sanctions, “an ill-advised response to the war”, have led to high energy prices and inflation, which resulted in “adopting a defensive position” in the economy rather than an attitude of “how could we feel better”. Unless it is reversed and “confidence returns to the economy” and “unless businessmen have faith in what they do there will be no economic growth … for the country to become successful again the war must be ended,” he said.

He noted that Hungarian diplomacy had advocated peace, but said a “major player” with the power to achieve that peace was necessary, explaining the importance of the result of the United States elections.

Putin and Orbán in July in Moscow. Photo: FB/Orbán

He said the 2025 budget would pave the way for developments in Hungary for which “the expression ‘fantastic’ is not unwarranted”. He said the draft outlined “the budget for a new economic policy to close an era and open up perspectives, hopes, opportunities,” adding that the budget would “focus on the smallest players, primarily families.” The family tax benefit would be doubled, he said. Referring to talks with employers and trade unions, the government is seeking to raise wages as “the sole remedy the government could offer against increasing prices … opportunities for the people to make more money,” he said, noting the government’s long-term goal of raising the average wage to a monthly one million forints.

Economic measures

Among the government’s major action plans Orbán mentioned housing and said several measures were aimed at ensuring affordable first homes and housing, introducing “promising novel ideas”.

On air. Photo: FB/Orbán

Employees under 35 would be eligible to a housing subsidy from their employer up to 150,000 forints a month to help with rent or mortgage payments, the prime minister said. He said the government had long considered abandoning the idea of developing the state-owned housing sector, which could “restore the culture of communist times”. Instead, the government could provide incentives to the private sector to offer housing subsidies to its young employees, he said. “It will make them attractive; companies offering such benefits will gain a competitive edge in the race for talented young employees,” he said.

The government’s Demjan Sandor programme will help small companies to “gain strength and rise to a higher level” through capital injections, Orbán said. The new workers’ loans, on the other hand, will offer “tangible help” to young employees, he added.

Difficult and exciting two months to come

Referring to the political climate after the US election Orbán said it was now “calm without winds; so far it has been windy and the ship was forging ahead, the campaign itself was a hurricane and drove the peace camp’s ship ahead at great speed. There was fight between the peace and war camps on a daily basis,” he added.

“A pro-peace presidential candidate has won and now we await peace,” he said, adding that “the question is what happens in America before Donald Trump assumes his office on January 20, whether American leaders acknowledge that the candidate of the peace camp has won.” He said further steps towards an escalation of the war should not be made but “the pro-peace president should be allowed to implement his programme as easily as possible”. He suggested it would be “risky” for the president-elect to take measures under US law, and said “since they constantly want to send Trump to prison he will think five times what he can and cannot do” before he takes his post. “We are ahead of a difficult and exciting two months,” Orbán added.

Orbán said a pro-peace turnaround must be fostered in the European Union, “to prevent the idea that we can continue this war without the US from emerging.” That concept “has proponents, they must be cornered and forced into meaningful dialogue about how they pictured doing that without ruining our own economy. Europe definitely has not enough money to finance this war without the Americans,” he said.

More than 300 state-subsidised investments launching next year

“Hungary must go on with its fight for peace, in Brussels this time, after an American victory triggering great expectations,” Orbán said. Without certain reforms to European Union policy, “the European Union may die within two or three years” as the French president has predicted, Orbán said. Orbán said the two main tasks were cutting energy prices, “which includes a review of sanctions,” and an “anti-bureaucracy reform”, achieved within the next six months.

Answering a question, Orbán said he saw a “30 percent chance for success, which is why it is very important not to wait for Brussels but to revolt where they want to strong-arm us into measures that are bad for Hungarian families.” Hungary’s draft budget was one such “open revolt”, Orbán said, as it contained the utility price caps and the government’s new housing and SME support schemes. Hungary will see more than 300 state-subsidised investments launching next year, he added.

“We are launching huge railway investments, the motorway constructions and revamps are under way, we are building a university and might finally get to the Heim Pál Children’s Hospital. Big, serious things are starting here, the diametrical opposits of what Brussels is doing,” Orbán said. Regarding the world economy, Orbán said the US and the EU had been neck-and-neck some 15 years ago, but since then, Europe’s economy has grown by 15 percent while the us’s jumped by 65 percent.

While richer member states “had awful years”, Hungary had remained more on the path of development, Orbán said. Without a utility price cap scheme of their own, soaring energy prices in other member states had devoured family incomes, he insisted. Europe can’t compete with the US “as long as they are paying a fourth of European electricity prices. We can’t win this way,” Orbán said. “Energy prices won’t fall with a sanctions policy like this.” Europe will also have to undergo “an anti-bureaucratic revolution”, Orbán said. “The second greatest problem in the EU is a hoard of idiotic, unviable rules suffocating the economy.”

Rude awakening for EU leaders

Orbán said the Draghi report on competitiveness presented at a European Union summit in Budapest a week ago had been a “rude awakening” for EU leaders and an incitement to take policy action.

Orbán said the report on the European economy, prepared by Mario Draghi, the well-respected former head of the European Central Bank, at Brussels’ request, showed that Europe was on a “suicide” path. EU leaders’ acknowledgement of the seriousness of the matter and the need to take steps produced the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal which was “effortlessly approved by all member states” at the summit, he added.

Regarding the National Consultation survey, Orbán said that besides “ammunition for the fights in Brussels,” the survey was also a way to involve the community in dialogue on “the great questions of the country’s future”.

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