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.

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”.

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.