"The people in Brussels took prompt action," Orban said. "They stated that Hungary is exempted from American sanctions but nonetheless they'll ban the import of Russian energy sources into Europe from 2027 ... We'll have a few words about this."

He said it was clear that Hungary's agreements with US Donald President Trump "serve to benefit all Hungarians". "We protected utility bill reductions, we didn't allow gas prices to rise, and we opened up new vistas for the Hungarian economy," he said, adding that these benefits were obvious to left- and right-wingers alike.

"It didn't take long for [opposition] Tisza to join Brussels's slander. If Brussels blows the whistle, their leaders immediately take to their feet," he wrote.

"And we'll see who's on which side. Who's with Hungarian families and who's with Brussels. This knowledge will come in handy next April!"

Orban: Exemption from sanctions exists ’until Trump is US president and I PM’

As long as Donald Trump is the US president and Viktor Orban the prime minister of Hungary, there is an agreement on Hungary’s exemption from US sanctions, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview broadcast on the YouTube channel of commercial ATV, adding that the agreement was crucial for Hungary’s utility price cut scheme.

Asked about conflicting information on the term of the exemption, Orban said Trump had heard his arguments and said "I understand, I’ll grant [the exemption]".

"This means that, as long as he is president there and I am prime minister here, we have this. When the circumstances change, we will have to re-negotiate," he said, adding: "If it lasts for twenty more years, then the agreement will last twenty years too."

Orban said he had not offered anything in exchange as he was not "trying to do business". "Business is not all about interests, it’s also about trust, loyalty, long-term partnership, and the US president did not want anything in return for this," he said.

He said he had "figured out" that the agreement would come about when Trump said in an interview that he would not grant exemption to Hungary from the sanctions. Trump is a businessman, he said, "when he doubles down on the stakes, you know he wants an agreement."

At the same time, he said that in talks with the US president, all outcomes were possible down to the last minute: "There is no such thing that you make a deal in advance and then mime [negotiations]."

He said there was no point in bluffing with Trump: "He’s a businessman, he can see through you in a minute … and he doesn’t like to be hoodwinked."

Therefore, Orban said he was very clear from the get-go that "the Hungarian economy would buckle if the US sanctions stay in place."

In response to a question about the US State Department's official statement that Hungary would purchase power plants, power plant fuel, LNG, and military equipment from the US for a total of 7 trillion forints (EUR 18.2bn), Orban said that this "should be understood as a from-to range" as there was no specific fixed amount, rather, areas where cooperation had been established, and this cooperation would have financial consequences, he added. He also said that this package did not include US investments coming to Hungary.

Orban said that "no matter what the US State Department writes," the United States has a presidential system, so the State Department or any other ministry merely carried out technical implementation. "That is why the important thing is what the president says, not what is written down," he added. When asked whether the Hungarian government operated in the same way, he replied: "not at all, because Hungary has a parliamentary system, not a presidential one."

Orban said that in 2010, when the Fidesz-Christian Democrats coalition garnered its first absolute majority, there had been discussions on whether Hungary should be transformed into "some sort of presidential or chancellor’s regime … but then we decided that the parliamentary regime suited us best."

He said that he had raised the issue after every election win.

Orban said various countries were competing for meeting Trump as soon as possible. He said that based on his "old rapport" with the US president, he had chosen another strategy.

He said he only wanted to meet Trump when a "serious agreement package was already in the pipeline and all important Hungary-US issues can be tabled."

Hungary also had to be "steered away" from the recently announced US sanctions, he said.

Regarding the financial shield agreement with the US, Orban said Hungary could "draw those monies down whenever we wanted, in whatever form we wanted."

He said that under his agreement with the US president, Hungary could draw on "one of the financial instruments whenever Hungary finds itself in financial difficulty."

"Hungary can’t find himself in a difficult economic situation because in such cases, the US and its president will stand behind Hungary and help," he said.

He said he didn’t think the support had a limit, and added that Hungary may need "10-20 billion dollars or euros."

Meanwhile, Orban said the European Union was hostile to Hungary and saw it as an obstacle to reaching its goals.

Orban said Hungary's financial exposure had grown due to its bad relations with Brussels and improved through its good relations with the US.

In the next five years, Hungary will be buying 400 million cubic meters of gas from the US every year, he said. Further, it will also buy US nuclear fuel "because it’s better to have a nuclear plant that can receive several types of fuel materials." Hungary will also buy US technology to store spent nuclear fuel rods, he said, adding that the US tech was more advanced than what Hungary currently used.

Meanwhile, he said the Russia-US summit in Budapest remained on the agenda. He said a Russia-US agreement had not become impossible; "the delegations are negotiating and Hungary is involved to a certain extent, we know certain things."

He said the talks currently hit a snag "on the issue of territories … 22 percent of Donetsk county is not yet under Russian occupation." He added that he had not given up the peace mission, and he was using his ties with Russia to work towards an agreement.

Orban said that Hungary had no political exposure to Russia. "We have historical exposure, which is not the same thing," he said. He added that the Russians cannot influence Hungarian political decisions, and that the Hungarian government's political decisions are made exclusively "based on Hungarian considerations."

Orban said that until 2008, he had thought it made sense for the Western world to push eastward and stabilise as many countries as possible. However, he said that between 1990 and 2008, Ukraine had been unable to strengthen itself sufficiently.

He added that at the NATO summit in Bucharest, the US supported Ukraine's accession to NATO, but Europe did not. He said he then negotiated with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2009, and they agreed on the framework for cooperation, that historical issues would not be raised, and that they would establish a direct line of communication and meet every year. This had been the case until the "world of sanctions" arrived, he said.

Orban also said that data sovereignty would become one of the most important elements of sovereignty in the future, and that Hungary must be a data-sovereign country, which requires data collection systems, for instance its own satellite. He added that the satellite would be built with US technology.

Orban said he would visit the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry next week and "hopefully" sign an agreement with them on a 70-80 billion (EUR 180m-208m) forint tax reduction package for small businesses.

He added that the interest rate on the Szechenyi Card had already been reduced, but this "will really cost a lot next year," some 300 billion forints. The discounts provided under the Sandor Demjan Programme amount to 130 billion forints, he added.

He said that they had made quite a few commitments during elections and did not want to give up any of their goals. These amounts "have to be found somewhere"; the price was that the budget deficit would be 5 percent instead of 3.7 percent, he said, adding that they were planning for a 5 percent deficit next year as well.

Orban said the lower-than-expected economic growth had been caused by the war. "If there were no war, the Hungarian economy would grow three times faster, so it is in the country's fundamental interest to end the war," he said, adding that 1 percent growth would "generate" 400 billion forints for the budget.

Put to him that the average pension is only 53 percent of the average wage, he said pensions should be compared to prices rather than wages.

"Hungary only has pensioners who can afford as much or more [than in 2010]," he said.

The Fidesz government has re-introduced the 13th month pension and "pensioners will probably receive the one week's worth [premium] of the 14th month pension" next year, he said.

He said the Hungarian pension system was opaque and contained internal injustices, but disrupting the system carried a greater risk than continuing on the current path of raising pensions.

Commenting on the Central Statistical Office's revised poverty data, according to which in 2024, nearly 20 percent of the population had been affected by poverty or social exclusion, and one in five children had lived in extreme poverty or at risk of poverty, Orban said the situation was not good, but it was better than it had been earlier.

He said he disagreed that this was a strikingly bad figure in the EU. "We are on the right track, we have not achieved our goal, we have a lot of work to do, but we are on the right track," he said, adding that we are "absolutely" on the right track when it comes to poverty. He also stated that there were no children in Hungary who do not receive family support.

Regarding the possible abolition of price caps, he said that what mattered was not his intention, but whether it would be possible. If inflation remained persistently high in Europe or the Western world, then "we will have to live with the tools to manage it", he said.

Without price caps, milk and flour would be 50 percent more expensive, eggs would be 40 percent more expensive, and certain dairy products would be 130-140 percent more expensive, he said. "Hungary cannot cope with the food prices that would exist without price caps," he added.

He also said that in line with traditional budgetary thinking, the capital city had long been bankrupt, but they were "managing it". He said Budapest was a very rich city, in fact it was "full of money", and currently there were hundreds of investments worth hundreds of billions of forints financed from the national budget. 

"So the capital city is the biggest winner of the past 15 years," he said. He said it was untrue that Budapest was being mistreated by the government. When asked whether the government would try to reach an agreement with Budapest, he said it was not a matter of reaching an agreement but of governing the city. He said if the capital's leadership could not resolve the situation, the government would help.

Commenting on former central bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy and the operation of the National Bank, he said that he did not yet have a clear view of the matter and had "very strong emotional ties" to the former MNB president.

He said he owed a great deal to Matolcsy, "who saved Hungary several times in difficult situations" from which "I think no one else could have pulled the country out." He said that the results of the investigations must be seen before passing judgment, but, "even if a single forint disappeared irregularly, then someone must be held accountable, someone must be held responsible, and it will be tough for them."

Regarding the upcoming elections, Orban said voters had "listened to their heads" when they elected Fidesz in 2010, and many would stick to the party for the same reason.

Commenting on the data leak concerning the opposition Tisza party’s app and an earlier case when Russian hackers had appeared in the foreign ministry, Orban said he had immediately deployed "all relevant experts" in the latter case. "The host must protect the data."

Asked why he didn’t want to debate Tisza leader Peter Magyar, he said his challenger was "not called Tisza Party but Brussels".

"Tisza is a project built up by Brussels, it is financed from there. That’s where the centre of force is; those voting for Tisza are voting for Brussels. The head of this snake is in Brussels, I am arguing with them, not the governors and agents in Hungary."

Asked about a pardon issued to the accomplice of a convicted paedophile by former President Katalin Novak, countersigned by then-Justice Minister Judit Varga which resulted in their resignation, Orban said Novak should have trusted the sentence of the court. "She should not have decided to become judge and jury in such a morally sensitive issue touching on the most important of causes," he said.

At the same time, Orban said the two women’s resignation was "a huge loss for the right wing."

He said he had not invited Varga to return to politics.

In conclusion, the interviewer, Egon Ronai, asked Orban if he would "come again" to ATV, which he hadn't given an interview to in 15 years. Orban said he would if the channel stopped "accepting monies from abroad."

"We will not change on that count," Ronai replied.

Orban: 'No matter what US State Department writes, what matters is what the president says'

"No matter what the US State Department writes, what matters is what the US president says," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on Tuesday in connection with agreements concluded during his recent visit to Washington, DC.

In response to a question about the US State Department's official statement that Hungary would purchase power plants, power plant fuel, LNG, and military equipment from the US for a total of 7 trillion forints (EUR 18.2bn), Orban said in an interview broadcast on commercial news channel ATV's YouTube channel that this should be understood as a "from-to" range as there was no specific fixed amount. Rather, areas where cooperation had been established, and this cooperation would have financial consequences, he added.

He also said that this package did not include US investments coming to Hungary.

Orban said that "no matter what the US State Department writes," the United States has a presidential system, so the State Department or any other ministry carries out technical implementation, he said. "That is why what the president says is important, not what is written down," he added.

When asked whether the Hungarian government operated in the same way, he replied: "not at all, because Hungary has a parliamentary system, not a presidential one."
 

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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