Government on Budapest protest: ‘A few hundred lamed the normal traffic of hundreds of thousands’

The government may have to raise pensions by around 1.3pc in November to match the rate of inflation, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said at a weekly press briefing on Thursday.

Gulyás said that the government calculated with average annual inflation of 4.5pc in 2025. He said the government had allocated over HUF 90bn for the resulting inflation-linked top-up which is required by law. The 1.3pc pension rise in November translates as HUF 39,600, in absolute terms, for the average pension, Gulyás said.

He said that Mihály Varga, the National Bank of Hungary’s new governor, had presented the central bank’s latest forecasts at the cabinet meeting. The central bank puts average annual inflation at “at least” 4.5pc in 2025, he added. Gulyás said inflation could be better than expected with the rollout of a government-mandated cap on markups of some basic foods. The new measure has cut prices of 874 products by 17.5pc on average, he added.

Gulyás: ‘A few hundred lamed the normal traffic of hundreds of thousands’

The legislative branch “is ready to react” if court decisions interpret the regulation of the right to assembly contrary to previous legal practice, thereby contributing to hobbling the capital’s traffic”, Gulyás said.

The interior minister briefed the cabinet on Wednesday on recent demonstrations that led to bridges being blocked in Budapest, Gulyás said. “A few hundred demonstrators closed four bridges in the city on one day”, he said.

Exercising the right to assembly may not curb others’ rights and freedom, he said. “We saw a minority of a few hundred people delaying the transport of hundreds of thousands,” he said.

Gulyás said that the government calculated with average annual inflation of 4.5 percent in 2025. He said the government had allocated over 90 billion forints (EUR 225m) for the the resulting inflation-linked top-up which is required by law. The 1.3 percent pension rise in November translates as 39,600 forints, in absolute terms, for the average pension, Gulyás said.

He said the government remained committed to putting an end to “needless price increases” and was prepared to approve further measures if necessary. “We still say that a 10 percent markup should be enough for supermarkets,” he added. Supermarket prices are constantly being monitored by the consumer protection and competition authorities, giving the government immediate updates on price changes, he added.

Government announces expansion of Hungarian Villages Programme

The government has decided to expand the Hungarian Villages Programme with a further four elements, Alpár Gyopáros, the government commissioner for developing modern settlements, said at a weekly government press briefing on Thursday.

Gyopáros said the government has decided to expand the Hungarian Villages Programme with a further four elements. Gyopáros said support for village shops and pubs, as well as church renovations, would start, in parallel with an initiative to ensure an ATM in every settlement.

Shops in settlements with populations under 5,000 may apply for support of between 1 million and 3 million forints, he said. The support for pubs will be available for owners in settlements with populations under 2,000, he added.

He said both the ruling and opposition parties agreed that the right to use cash should be given constitutional protection, adding that more than 2,000 settlements in the country did not have ATMs. Gyopáros added that the renovation of streets, pavements and public buildings will also continue under the scheme.

Gyoparos confirmed that the plan was to have an ATM in all settlements, regardless of population size. When asked whether the banks would fully cover the costs of these, he said it would be most expedient if the operator took full responsibility for the asset it owned.

Asked whether the additional costs would not be passed on to consumers, Gyoparos said the national economy minister had already announced that he was negotiating with the banks and would block any such attempts.

Meanwhile, Gulyás said it appeared that Slovakia was the source of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the west of Hungary, based on the latest information.

Gulyás said the outbreak of the disease at a farm in the settlement of Level had affected around 3,000 heads of cattle. He said vaccination of the herd had begun to prevent the disease from spreading further, but the animals had to be destroyed regardless. He added that cooperation between Hungarian and Slovakian authorities to address the threat was “strong”.

The outbreak in Level was the second detected in Hungary after a period of more than fifty years.

Farmers reporting losses incurred due to foot-and-mouth disease will be fully compensated, Gulyás said, adding that the government expected no compensation from the EU on that count.

EU aid can be requested when the epidemic is grave enough to endanger a significant part of livestock, he said, adding that they hoped to avoid that situation. Currently, foot-and-mouth disease is present in two localities, “so its effect on the sector is not enormous”, he said.

Regarding possible changes to freedom of assembly regulations in connection with a demonstration in Budapest on Tuesday, Gulyás said the government was looking at the court decision on the matter. Under current regulations, “exercising the freedom of assembly may not disproportionately disrupt traffic”.

“During a national holiday, with tens or hundreds of thousands marching, obstruction of traffic may not be disproportionate, but forcing everyone to sit in their car for 1.5 hours on a weekday afternoon because a few hundred people decide to abuse their right to express their opinion is not acceptable,” he said.

He called the demonstrators’ decision to close four bridges at the protest “unlawful”.

Asked whether the use of the rainbow flag would be banned from public buildings, Gulyás said the government had not discussed such a move at the meeting on Wednesday, “but I would never hang a rainbow flag from a public building”. Asked whether he’s vote in favour of a proposal of opposition party Our Homeland to ban rainbow flags on public buildings, he said: “I think so.”

Regarding the introduction of stricter entry protocols into Parliament after opposition MPs ignited flares in the Chamber during the vote on amendments to the regulation of assembly laws, which they said were designed to curb the rights of LGBTQ people, Gulyás said all proposals would be taken under advisement. “Opposition lawmakers have the right to control the government but not to commit crimes or carry equipment for such actions [into Parliament],” he said.

Asked why the Pride March has not been banned in the past fifteen years, Gulyás said that “up to now, the US Ambassador led the Pride, we had two boots on our chest. One is gone now.”

Responding to a question on whether the government saw a connection between recent demonstrations in Budapest, Serbia, Slovakia and Türkiye, Gulyás said the government “has no such information”.

Commenting on a proposal in the Budapest Assembly to light a Budapest church with rainbow colours, Gulyás said “a Christian person would justifiably feel it was a provocation to use the symbol of Pride, which is also a Christian symbol” in such a context. He called the proposal “tasteless, cynical and evil”.

Regarding Tisza leader Péter Magyar’s call on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to run as an individual candidate in Budapest’s 12th district, Gulyás said Fidesz had already appointed its candidates.

Regarding the planned expansion of the circle of public figures obliged to submit asset declarations, Gulyás said “it was only right” for MEPs to submit the same declarations as lawmakers.

In 2022, the government tried to introduce asset declarations similar to those in the EP in the Hungarian parliament, too, “but the European Commission said that was not right,” he said. That made it necessary to create regulations eliminating double standards while complying with the EC’s requirements, he said.

Hungary’s asset declaration system “is one of the best and widest-ranging … it’s not fair that the leftist-liberal media ignores that,” he said.

Asked whether former central bank governor György Matolcsy may be held accountable regarding an investigation into the central bank’s foundations, Gulyás said “the matter of responsibility could be raised … in a report by the Audit Office [ASZ] or during the investigation launched by the Prosecutor’s Office.”

“The government hasn’t had responsibility regarding the operation of the central bank for thirty-five years; the controlling body is the Audit Office. ASZ has reviewed the foundations earlier and found everything in order in 2018; the latest review came to a very different conclusion,” he said.

Asked whether central bank capital lost due to the foundations must be replaced from government coffers, Gulyás said the government was obliged to compensate losses due to exchange rate policy over a period of five years. “That does not include losses due to the central bank’s own management,” he said.

Regarding a recent military training accident, Gulyás said an investigation was underway into reckless endangerment, but it was wrong to suggest that participation in the Adaptive Defence programme had not been fully voluntary. Out of ten thousand government officials, 184 participated, he added.

He noted that the rules of voluntary military training had not changed in three decades, adding that in the specific case, the training was preceded by five months of preparation and the accident happened on the 25th day of training.

Gulyás asked the press to show sensitivity towards the victim, adding that he had visited her on Tuesday and talked to her father. He added that under the relevant regulations it was classified as a workplace accident.

Asked about political responsibility, he said the matter could only be addressed once the investigation had discovered the essential facts.

Commenting on the 72-hour survival package proposed by the European Commission to European citizens, Gulyás said it was a “desperate” move indicating that Europe was not prepared for the situation that had emerged. He noted that the prime minister’s proposal for a joint European defence force back in 2012 had been considered warmongering at the time, whereas now talk was about establishing just such a force.

He added that Hungary supported strong national armies and military cooperation between them.

Asked how much Ukraine’s EU accession would cost Hungarian taxpayers, Gulyás put it in the billions, adding that a multitude of questions could not be answered such as territorial integrity and Ukraine’s preparedness. Ukraine’s accession carried unpredictable consequences, he added.

He said Hungary would not support any joint European borrowing beyond the seven-year budget.

Gulyás said the Hungarian governing parties were against Ukraine’s EU accession while the opposition parties, including DK and the Tisza Party, were in favour. One of the conditions for parties joining the European People’s Party was to unconditionally support Ukraine, he insisted.

Asked about EU funding, Gulyás said more than 3 billion euros would arrive in Hungarian coffers this year as planned. The debate on the suspended funds would be relevant in 2026-27, when they reached the point where these funds would also be used, he said, adding that the government reckoned that if an agreement were reached by end-2026, Hungary would not suffer any serious losses.

He said EU funding was linked to a political campaign against Hungary by the European Commission to punish Hungary for its anti-war, anti-migration and anti-gender position, “even though these have nothing to do with each other”.

Asked about the cap on food markups, he said prices of 800 products had fallen. If the government found that retailers were trying to recover their losses from consumers through cross-pricing, it would take immediate action, Gulyás said.

Asked whether there was any suspicion that the retail chains had been involved in cartel activity, he said that only the competition authority could find out. So far, no cartel activity had been discovered, he said.

Windfall profits, he said, were circulating in the system and putting upward pressure on inflation and food prices.

Asked how the minimum wage would reach the equivalent of 1,000 euros and the gross average wage one million forints now that the central bank had downgraded its growth forecast, Gulyás said the only question was whether this would happen in 2027 or 2028, as wage growth dynamics had not deteriorated. He noted that real wages increased almost 10 percent last year, adding that wages were also rising this year. It was important to keep inflation as low as possible and for real wages to rise tangibly, he added.

Regarding the 25 percent US tariff on car imports, Gulyás said it was necessary to negotiate with the Americans. He said Europe had made a big mistake by imposing a 10 percent tariff on American cars when the US had only imposed a 2.5 percent tariff on European cars.

He said decision-makers in Brussels were “unable to see the fundamental connections” between the two. The least Europe should have done was to reduce the relevant tariffs, he said. “We are partly to blame for the problem and partially got what we expected,” he said.

Asked whether the government’s expectations regarding the new US administration had been proven right, Gulyás said they had already said before that the new US president might even take economic measures that could have a negative impact on Europe. This seems to be confirmed, he added.

Gulyás said at the same time what was “very important for Europe and the Hungarian economy” was the US president’s best endeavours to establish peace, “and there is a good chance that he will succeed in the foreseeable future”.

The minister also said it was welcome that the current US ambassador was not trying to meddle in everyday politics.

Asked about bomb threats made against schools, Gulyás said investigators had managed to trace some of the emails back to the perpetrators, adding, at the same time, that “it is a long chain” and the authorities had yet to uncover who was behind the threats.

Gulyás was also asked if there would be any legislative amendments now that László Varju of the opposition Democratic Coalition — who resigned as MP after being convicted of rowdy behaviour — won a by-election in Budapest’s 4th and 13th district last weekend. He said voters “don’t have to be protected from themselves … if they want to see a criminal in parliament, then, by all means.”

Assessing the outcome of the election, he said the ruling parties had “failed to offer an appealing alternative”. He said that though Fidesz lost this district in every general election since 2010, on Sunday they received 4-5 percent more than in last year’s European Parliament election. “The outcome of a vote — regardless of how much we may dislike it — is never the fault of the voters,” he added.

Asked about the prime minister’s reference to “bugs” in his March 15 speech, Gulyás said Viktor Orbán had used the word as a “moniker for the leader of the opposition Tisza Party”. “Everything else the prime minister said meant to convey that those who act against the interests of Hungary are doing the bidding of foreign players,” he said, adding that the prime minister did not consider opposition politicians, journalists or judges to be “bugs”.

Commenting on claims about a plan to restrict press freedom, Gulyás said no such proposal had been submitted to parliament.

Asked about the Sovereignty Protection Office, he said any challenge to its reports must be filed with the office itself.

“No foreign influence can be kept secret,” Gulyás said, explaining that a journalist who receives funding from the United States to write an article had a duty to disclose this fact “in the spirit of transparency”.

Put to him that ruling Fidesz had also received funding from US billionaire George Soros in the past, Gulyás said: “In 1988-89 there was a communist dictatorship in Hungary, and now there’s freedom and democracy.”

Asked about the Serbian deputy prime minister’s admission that Russia’s spy services were helping smother protests in the country and whether this hurt Serbia’s sovereignty, Gulyás cited Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as saying that they were in contact with both the Russian and US secret services.

Gulyás said it was normal for a country’s intelligence services to inform an ally if it came under an external attack.

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