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Mr Orbán said every year Hungary would be compelled to pay HUF 800 billion more for energy purchased from countries other than Russia; this amount is the equivalent of the sum that the government distributes annually among families in the form of the reduction of household energy bills.
He said rather than helping their own families and businesses with their energy policy, the majority of EU Member States want to harm the Russians in order to thereby help Ukraine.
The Prime Minister said Hungary is of the opposite opinion, is engaged in a battle with these Member States, and will not allow the sanctions related to Russian energy to be extended to Hungary.
The Ukrainians are behind the whole policy seeking to hike energy prices up, and so it is not unjustified to speak of a Ukrainian energy threat, he added.
He said the Ukrainians “sing from the same hymn sheet as European leaders” who believe that by harming the Russians they help the Ukrainians.
He pointed out that the Ukrainians demanded something of the Europeans which destroyed families, and this threat also applied to Hungarian families.
The Brussels debates are not conducted over people’s heads, but in their very homes, what is at stake is what will happen to the Hungarian people’s electricity and heating bills, he pointed out.
On the programme, Mr Orbán also spoke about the fact that every effort must be made to prevent the banning of Russian gas from Europe.
We have a pipeline in vain if they do not allow gas to come through it, the Prime Minister said, highlighting that this step would impose a burden on the budget that is more or less the equivalent of the reduction of household energy bills, and the question has yet to be answered how this measure could be maintained under such circumstances.
“I usually say in Brussels that I understand that they want to harm Russia and want to help the Ukrainians, I understand that, but why do they want to make the Hungarians foot the bill? Where is that money? Give it to us, and then we’re square,” Mr Orbán said.
You can negotiate with us, the Prime Minister stressed, observing that “if they’re prepared to pay for the negative impact of their policy on Hungary, that’s a different story.”
“But for the time being, they’re turning a deaf ear to our plight, and think that we Hungarians should pay this sum. However, I keep telling them that this is not our war, and we will not allow Brussels to make us pay for supporting Ukraine,” Mr Orbán said, taking stock of the current situation.
The Prime Minister recalled that the plan of the Nabucco gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine had emerged decades before, but at the time it had been frustrated. However, seeing the danger ahead, the Hungarian government connected the gas pipelines of Slovakia and Hungary together, and created a southern pipeline in the direction of Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey, connecting the existing pipelines together, increasing their capacity and building new compressor stations.
Regarding the consequences of this, he said after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Slovakia now has access to gas through this system alone. It turned out that short-term business considerations might have been against the project, but long-term energy security criteria were in favour of it, Mr Orbán said concerning the project.
The Prime Minister mentioned Turkey as the key state from the viewpoint of Hungary’s gas supply, stating that both Azeri and Russian gas goes to Turkey, and the Turks are brave enough – no matter what anyone says – to let in Russian gas, and to also let it through.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the fact that Hungary had concluded an agreement with Azerbaijan, as part of which Hungarian businesses had been allowed to acquire minority stakes in Azeri natural gas fields which were among the world’s largest.
With this, he observed, it is possible to reduce the price of Hungary’s energy requirement. In his words, a state like Hungary which lost its territories with energy sources needs much ingenuity.
“If you’re not smart, you find yourself out of pocket,” he said, adding that “right now, in Brussels you must be not only smart, but also strong.”
Regarding Ukraine’s EU accession, the Prime Minister stressed that “we want to keep Ukraine outside under any circumstances because if we let them in, then they will absorb all our money like a sponge,” and we Central Europeans, including Hungary, will pay the price.
He said Western European leaders got it into their heads that they would conclude an agreement with the Ukrainians which also includes Ukraine keeping an army of around a million constantly armed. This would be paid for by the Europeans, meaning that instead of strengthening its own armies, Western Europe will pay Ukrainian soldiers.
This could even result in a major security risk for Europe because we could end up financing an army whose intentions may not always be amicable towards us, or at least there is no guarantee for that, he warned.
He stressed that the issue of Ukraine’s EU membership was connected to this because it was much easier to make pro-Ukraine decisions, financial decisions if Ukraine was in the EU than if it was not.
In this regard, the Prime Minister encouraged everyone to state their opinion in the Vote2025 opinion vote launched by the government about Ukraine’s EU membership.
“We should not allow others to decide over our heads,” he stressed.
He said he sincerely hopes that the vote – in which as many as a million people have already taken part – will confirm the government’s position rejecting Ukraine’s EU membership.
He also said that the Tisza Party already conducted its own party vote about the issue in which 58 per cent of respondents supported Ukraine’s EU membership.
On the programme, the Prime Minister further spoke about the fact that Hungarian opposition parties have Ukrainian contacts, and the Ukrainians “make headway like a knife through butter” when they enter Hungarian politics through the opposition parties.
He stressed that “a pro-war and pro-Ukraine propaganda network is being operated in Hungary,” and “it keeps pushing pro-Ukraine positions into our faces with daily regularity.” However, in the Prime Minister’s words, “we took the necessary measures” against this, including through the presentation to Parliament of the transparency bill.
He observed that it was possible to know about some opposition parties that they were pro-Ukrainian because they supported Ukraine’s membership. However, no one expected to find that the Ukrainian secret services “maintain such intensive relations” with them.
Regarding the Ukrainian man apprehended in Budapest, on the programme the Prime Minister said there is intensive Ukrainian spy activity in Hungary. Every state has intelligence network of some sort which must be tolerated in international practice. However, experiences show that Ukraine’s intelligence activity has intensified in Hungary, and they are even organising active operations here.
“They build up a created story about arresting spies regarded as Hungarians in Ukraine which we, of course, have nothing to do with, and they identify intelligence needs in connection with state leaders, in connection with the functioning of the Hungarian state,” the Prime Minister said.
He pointed out that we were ready to counter such activities. The moment they accused us of deploying Hungarian spies in Ukraine we took our counter-measures here.
They have a disinformation campaign, while we ourselves presented to Parliament a bill, the transparency bill which does not allow the Ukrainians to operate a pro-Ukraine propaganda network here in Hungary, he added.
In answer to a question, Mr Orbán said the opposition parties concerned, including the Tisza Party, do not refute these claims, but “I saw a video in which Ukrainian operatives identified by the Hungarian state provide services, organise visits, build relations for Hungarian opposition parties.”
He pointed out that this could not be denied; the persons are there on the worldwide web, in the digital world, in their own voices and their own images.
In the Prime Minister’s words, “every operation points in the same direction,” namely that the Hungarians must be induced to support Ukraine’s EU membership. This is why the Ukrainians mobilised their existing connections with members of the Hungarian opposition, this is why they are organising disinformation campaigns, and this is why they are implementing secret service operations in the territory of Hungary.
They want to force the Hungarian government and the Hungarian people somehow to say yes to Ukraine’s EU accession, even if “it costs an arm and a leg,” Mr Orbán stressed, observing that to this end they are mobilising considerable resources, and have built extensive relations with members of the Hungarian political elite.
In the context of the transparency bill currently lying before Parliament, the Prime Minister said it is a national interest that political civil society organisations and political media outlets should not be allowed to accept funding from abroad.
He said the majority of the Hungarian public believe that those who are engaged in politics should not be allowed to accept funding from abroad, and this opinion is accepted before the public even by the fake civil society and media organisations concerned.
“I think that there could be a national consensus regarding this in Hungary,” the Prime Minister said, observing that it should not be the duty of members of the Hungarian public “to constantly look behind the curtain” to determine whether a civil society organisation or media outlet states its own opinion, or is “in someone else’s pay” and receives money from abroad.
“This is not irrelevant, when I read a news item, I myself would like to know whose opinion I’m reading,” Mr Orbán stated.
In his view, the bill – compared with the relevant US legislation – is “positively mild,” and on this issue there could be a national consensus in Hungary, too. He pointed out that there was no such regulation at present because they had believed that this was how it should be: organisations engaged in politics must not accept any kind of money.
There is a rule applicable to parties – what they are and what they are not allowed to do. However, today there is no such rule for civil society organisations engaged in politics, “so we thought we should now create one,” he explained, observing that there can be a debate about issues of a technical nature, but we should all agree on the underlying objective.
On the programme, the Prime Minister assumed a guarantee personally for the introduction of the personal income tax exemption for mothers with two and three children.
Mr Orbán said they set the goal – and he guarantees the realisation of this goal to members of the Hungarian electorate – that in 2025-2026 the budget will support families, and mothers primarily.
He added that he guaranteed that from October 2025 mothers raising three children, while from 1 January 2026 mothers with two children under the age of 40 years would be granted personal income tax exemption for the rest of their lives, and then in an ascending system all Hungarian mothers with minimum two children would be given tax exemption.
He highlighted that this was an unprecedented step, there was nothing like this anywhere in the world. “Come rain or shine, whatever happens, war or no war, we will achieve this under any circumstances,” he said.
He indicated that next year’s budget was based on the assumption that in 2026 they would be able to prevent, both in Budapest and in Brussels, the Hungarian people’s money from going to Ukraine.
He added that they believed in President Trump’s peace policy. They do not know whether peace will be restored, but they do expect a ceasefire and the lessening of war tensions.
He drew attention to the fact that in the past three years Hungary had lost some EUR 20 billion in the economy due to the war. If there was no war, “everything would be soaring, but now nothing is soaring” because as long as the war lasts, it is difficult for the economy to take off.
He stressed that despite this, he had not given up, and encouraged everyone in the government to find solutions, rather than talk about the difficulties.
“I focus on having goals of our own, and not yielding an inch on our own goals, however difficult the situation may be,” he laid down.
In answer to a question about a 12 per cent decline in investments in the first quarter and the developments of the Chinese car manufacturer BYD in Hungary, he said today, there are fewer investments in the Hungarian economy, and a higher percentage of the growth potential comes from consumption than from production.
This is good in the short term because it means that the people have money and are able to spend it, while from the resulting tax revenues it is possible to maintain the balance of state finances, he explained. He observed at the same time that in the longer term this was not good because it was best if there was a sufficient amount of investment every year; this is why the government launched the factory construction programme.
He stressed that the Chinese were the best at electromobility, and we must always bring the best to Hungary. At the same time, the Prime Minister said it is a major achievement that with the implementation of BYD’s development centre, some two thousand people, mostly development engineers will find jobs.
