Presenting the police report for last year, Tamas Terdik said: "Since the advent of modern statistics, there have never been so few crimes committed in public areas, car theft and burglaries as in 2025."

The number of crimes committed in Budapest involving a police procedure decreased by 22.6 percent, from 52,185 in 2024 to 40,371 last year, the police chief said.

Those committed in public areas shrank by 15 percent, with 13,599 such cases in 2024 and 11,561 in 2025, he said.

At the same time, however, the number of manslaughter cases increased from 29 to 41 in the same period, he added.

Online fraud has dropped by 9 percent, the police chief said.

Concerning drug trafficking, Terdik said procedures against over 300 drug dealers had been launched in 2025 and the authorities seized drugs worth nearly 1 billion forints.

The police leader said that while 53.4 percent of the investigations was concluded successfully in 2024, that ratio increased to 57.6 percent last year.

He said that public police presence should be increased, but voiced satisfaction over the police's performance and said that "Budapest has stayed a safe city free of extremism".

Richard Barabas, a deputy of the Parbeszed-Greens party, asked Terdik "why he thought the police had control over last year's Budapest Pride march, an event not governed by the assembly law" and if the police chief would grant his consent to this year's event.

In his answer, Terdik said the police "separately evaluate each request", adding that the police had "acknowledged" the organisers' intention to hold this year's Pride.

Meanwhile, Investigations into embezzlement, money laundering underway in NBH case

Based on earlier reports by the State Audit Office two investigations have been underway involving the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) since April 2025, one concerns embezzlement related to central bank foundations and the renovation of the NBH headquarters building and other concerns suspicions of money laundering, the head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) said on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference on the latest developments of the investigation, Aron Jeney said the money laundering investigation was launched in April 2025 and cash and securities worth HUF 91.8bn had been seized so far.

During the investigation, 97 individuals, 36 companies and 11 private equity funds came under scrutiny. The investigators identified 117 bank accounts at one of the companies involved.

Annamaria Voko, the head of the investigative team in the case, said that over the past two days coordinated investigative actions had been carried out against seventeen legal entities with partner agencies, seizing a significant volume of documents and electronic data storage devices.

Chief Prosecutor Pal Furcht said that with the tens of terabytes of data now seized, the volume of data generated in the NBH case has been multiplied.

After consulting with the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV), additional experts will be involved in the case as the volume of seized data exceeds current capacity, Furcht said.

He said the analytical software currently being procured and artificial intelligence solutions would help speed the processing of the case, but he was unable to say how long it was expected to take.

Fielding a question, Furcht said neither the police, nor prosecutors had felt any political pressure either before or after the election. However, after April 12, there was an increase in the "willingness to cooperate" on the part of certain companies.

He also said certain individuals had initiated "plea bargains," but that is not considered unusual in criminal proceedings.

There are eight prosecutors working in the team investigating the NBH case, he said.

It will only be possible to determine whether the crime was committed in a criminal organisation at a later stage of the investigation, the chief prosecutor said. If it can be proved that a criminal organisation was operating, the maximum sentence is 20 years, he added.

MTI Stock Photo

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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