Thank you very much, Zoltán. Good morning everyone.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to wish a happy New Year to those who have decided to start the political season here with us. I wish you all a successful and happy New Year. There are many questions concerning the year 2026. It will be my task, with the help of the Minister, to answer these questions. Before we get to that, if I may, I would like to provide a brief introduction for today’s gathering. I would also like to say a few words about 2025, and how I view the most important issues for 2026.
What we all know about 2025 is that it was an extremely eventful year – not only from your perspective, but also from mine, from the Government’s perspective. I have prepared a rather boring statistical summary, which shows that in 2025 I attended eighty-two meetings of heads of state and government, and was present at twenty-five summits. What is more exciting than this is that 2025 was a year when it became clear to everyone that an era in international politics had come to an end, with President Trump’s inauguration dealing the final blow to that old era. As a result, in 2026 we are already living in a new era. There will surely be enough written to fill a library on how to define and verbally describe the old era, and how to describe the new era ahead of us. For now we are still using the simple approach of calling the era that ended in 2025 “the liberal world order”. This had its own rules – let’s say its old rules, which are no longer valid; and in 2026 Hungarians will have to make headway in a world operating according to new rules. We call the era we have entered “the era of nations” – and, with due humility and modesty, we consider ourselves to have been the heralds of this era since 2010.
There are three or four important issues in this new era. I would like to talk briefly about these. The most important issue of the new era – here in Europe – is the question of “war or peace”. The Hungarian government’s task here is easy to identify: it must keep Hungary away from the dangers of war; it must strive to ensure that the era of danger that has now dawned presents Hungary with the fewest possible challenges and trials.
In my opinion, one of the most important issues of this new era, which we will be discussing a great deal over the next ten years, is the issue of energy. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, sovereignty – the sovereignty of nations – is increasingly dependent on the ability to be self-sufficient in energy. On the other hand, this is not only a question of sovereignty, but also clearly the most important issue in technological development. This is because the energy requirements of the new technologies that are increasingly appearing in our lives – big data centres, artificial intelligence – are continuously growing by orders of magnitude at a pace that is almost impossible to keep up with. Countries that are able to provide these new industries with affordable – if possible, cheap – energy sources have a chance to become the winners of this new technological era; but those that do not have this capability – those that are not sovereign in terms of energy supply and are unable to provide these services – will be left behind. The task for Hungary is to have a strong supply chain, secure infrastructure, and serious, stable, large energy companies. As I see it, Hungary’s energy supply and security are guaranteed, our independence is secure, and we are able to produce the amount of energy needed to build new capacities. Of course, in order to achieve this we had to make changes: we had to supplement our previous energy policy and ensure that Hungarian companies were present in various parts of the world – both as producers and owners. We are increasingly present with these capabilities in ever more places around the world. Here I must make the comment that the natural gas and oil industry regulations, some of which originate in Brussels, are destructive for Hungary – especially the fact that they want to cut Hungary off from oil and natural gas supplies from Russia. Brussels intends these to take effect in 2027. Hungary is defending itself in two ways. On the one hand, through legal channels: as soon as these previously adopted decisions come into force – when they are legally in force, which is expected by the end of January – we will of course initiate proceedings against the Brussels Commission. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, because this is an abuse of legal process: these regulations are, by their nature, sanctions; yet here they are being presented as a trade policy decision, and different procedures apply to the creation of these rules, depending on which category they fall into. Here we are faced with an abuse of legal process. Furthermore, the founding treaty makes it completely clear that the issue of the “energy mix” – as they call it over there – falls within national jurisdiction. In other words, every country has the sovereign right to shape its own energy supply system. This right may not be taken away. And, of course, we are also working against this Brussels regulation in a political context. Our hope is that our work will help to end the current state of war by 2027: there should be a balanced new situation between Russia and Ukraine; as a result, the sanctions should be lifted – and if there are no sanctions, then this European decision will also be rendered meaningless. As a side note, I would like to mention that Brussels’ current regulation of prices is increasing the price of energy in Europe by approximately 20 per cent. If it weren’t for the EU regulatory system known as ETS 1 [Emissions Trading System Phase 1], the price of energy in Europe could immediately be 20 per cent cheaper. If there are any questions, I will be happy to talk about the threat posed by ETS 2, which we will also have to defend ourselves against, and which would mean a 27 per cent increase in natural gas prices and an 8–10 per cent increase in fuel prices across the whole of Europe.
The second – or rather third – major issue for 2026 and this new era is an “old” one: migration – or to put it in legal terms, the implementation of the Migration Pact adopted by Brussels. This Migration Pact is scheduled to be enacted on 12 June 2026. According to the Brussels decision, Hungary would have to process 23,000 asylum applications within one year. This will, or would, only be possible if we were to create an accommodation centre for 10,000 people – we could call it a migrant camp. The Commission has also decided that we must accept 350 migrants who did not submit their applications in Hungary, but in other Western European countries. From June 2026 we would have to take them in and conduct the procedures relating to them. On this the Hungarian government’s position remains unchanged: we shall not take in a single migrant from any Western European country, we shall not build refugee camps, we shall not change our border defence system, and we shall not become a country of immigrants. We shall not accept orders from Brussels on whom we should live with. In the past, there have been Western European countries that wanted to tell us whom we should not live with – and that did not end well. Now they want to tell us whom we should live with – and if we accepted that, it would not end well either.
And finally, the fourth major question for 2026 and the new era is the possibility of development: Will Hungary have the possibility to develop, at a time when most European Union countries are implementing austerity measures and the European economy is in decline? Is it realistic to aim for Hungary to be strong, for Hungary to develop, and for Hungarians to live better lives? We believe that this is a realistic goal, so we must not give up on our economic goals and economic development goals in this new era either. It is undoubtedly true that development requires money. You have money for development if you do not give your money to others. If you give it away, you will not have any money left for that goal. This means that we shall not give Hungary’s money to Ukraine, we shall not participate in war loans to Ukraine, and Hungary shall not participate in financial aid sent to Ukraine. We shall mobilise the economic resources at our disposal in the interests of Hungarians. We shall spend the money we have on Hungary and Hungarian families. We shall not give any war loans, nor shall we participate in any. We are convinced that this is a scam: they call it a loan, but everyone knows that the Ukrainians will never pay it back, so it would be more accurate to call it aid. Of course, we shall not send soldiers, and we shall not send weapons either. But what is perhaps less obvious is that we shall not accept the decisions made in Brussels that seek to convert the economic systems of Member States to war economies. We are convinced that the transition to a war economy does not serve the cause of peace, nor does it serve the economic interests of Member States. On this basis, Hungary has decided to opt out of this war economy and instead build a peace economy. We are convinced that this will provide opportunities for development. We modestly refer to this as “the Hungarian path” – as opposed to the Brusselite warpath.
Since we are building a peace economy, measures have been taken that came into effect on 1 January in Hungary that would be unimaginable in today’s Western Europe. First of all, from 1 January we are doubling family tax allowances. We increased them by 50 per cent on 1 July, and now on 1 January we increased family tax allowances by another 50 per cent. Mothers under the age of 30 with one child are exempt from personal income tax from 1 January, and mothers under the age of 40 with two children will also be exempt from personal income tax. The minimum wage is increasing by 11 per cent. A corporate tax reduction programme worth approximately 90 billion forints is being launched. We are phasing in the fourteenth month’s pension. We are continuing our fixed 3 per cent first-home loan programme. On 1 February we will pay out the six-month armed law enforcement bonus. We will continue to raise teachers’ salaries, and by the end of this year we would like to reach an average salary for teachers of 936,000 forints. There will be a 15 per cent salary increase for those working in public administration, in regional public administration, the social care system, and the cultural sector. In 2025 we announced a three-year programme for those working in the justice system, which will continue this year and end in 2027. Judges’ salaries will increase by 48 per cent, those of court clerks by 89 per cent, and those of other court employees by 100 per cent. In addition, we are announcing a new residential energy storage programme, offering subsidies of 2.5 million forints to families who already use solar panels or intend to do so in the future. Each of these measures would be a major achievement on its own, but taken together it is simply fantastic that Hungary is able to introduce and implement them all in the midst of a period of European economic policy based on austerity.
And finally I would like to say one more thing. As you know, in 2026 there will be parliamentary elections in Hungary. As you can see from what I have said, in our view, the options facing the country are simple: either we follow the Brussels path, which leads to war and economic austerity; or we follow the Hungarian path, which brings peace and development opportunities for Hungary, enabling a stronger Hungary, a stronger economy, and a better life for Hungarians.
I believe that now I have said what I considered to be important. Thank you very much for your patience. If you have any questions, I am at your disposal.
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