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3rd July, 2025
Orban announces 3% mortgage rate for first-time buyers
Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a new scheme for those buying their first home, based on a mortgage rate of 3%.
A post uploaded to his Facebook page as the cabinet met on Wednesday said “Government decision: 3% preferential loan for the first flat or house. For anyone. Anywhere. Details soon!”.
Portfolio notes that the measure raises numerous questions, adding that the details will define its economic impact.
Of particular interest, the website remarks, is the source of financing the gap between the fixed 3% and market rates.
In his Facebook video, Orban said that in the “home creation loan programme”, loans of up to Ft 50 million can be taken out for a 25-year term, with an interest rate of 3% throughout the term, and a 10% down payment from the buyer’s own resources.
Orban said in the video that in the past few years, property prices have soared in Hungary, which may be good news for those who own their home, but many people have not yet been able to buy or build their first home. (telex.hu; nepszava.hu; portfolio.hu)
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3rd July, 2025
Orban ready to fight EU over water
PMO leader Gergely Gulyas and government spokeswoman Eszter Vitalyos will hold a press conference on Thursday to report on the outcome of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the cabinet took action in May to prepare for summer drought, as he looked forward to a dispute over the issue with the EU.
A drought protection operative task force was formed in May, he said, and 1,000 people worked during the May rainy period to store the water equivalent to one-third of Lake Balaton, to be taken to drought-stricken areas.
“Of course, Brussels attacked the Hungarian government for providing water for free to Hungarian farmers,” said Orban.
He was presumably basing his comment on a report that the European Parliament has drawn up a new water strategy whereby farmers in EU member states will have to pay for the use of water.
“We shall not surrender to the pressure, we shall not give in, so we shall continue to provide water for free to farmers, no matter what Brussels thinks of it”, he declared on Facebook.
The cabinet will continue its water supply work in drought-afflicted areas not only in the summer but in the autumn as well, he added. (atv.hu; vg.hu)
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3rd July, 2025
Fidesz preparing not only for election defeat but for quick return
Fidesz expects a parliamentary election defeat in 2026, but there is an internal narrative of a speedy return, a government source with insight into the Fidesz world told HVG.
The unnamed source said that, following an election defeat, the president, the prosecutor general, the head of the Constitutional Court – all cemented in place with two-thirds laws – along with the state of the economy will ensure that it would be impossible for Peter Magyar to govern and four years later or even earlier they can come back, as is seen in Poland.
Another source suggested that Orban would willingly present dossiers about the infamous acts of several leading Fidesz officials to Magyar if the opposition leader agreed to ensure that other Fidesz officials are not investigated.
They also told HVG that Magyar “might possibly be taken out of the system this year, somehow, but that would be risky and impossible directly before the elections.
HVG observes that Fidesz is working to hinder a two-thirds majority even if it cannot avoid an election defeat.
Fidesz officials criticised Orban’s work, saying that no domestic policy benefit has arisen from the foreign policy successes – if they can even be called that.
HVG was also informed that Janos Lazar’s recent street forums are viewed as a test and if it is a success, then other politicians, perhaps even the prime minister could start holding forums in response to Peter Magyar’s tour of the country.
However, the weekly’s sources fear that Lazar may be given a more serious role because “he can betray anybody anytime” and so they would not like him to take on a leading role if Orban were to withdrew into the background. (24.hu; hvg.hu)
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3rd July, 2025
Fidesz cites invalid referendum result in response to huge Pride parade
Ever since the biggest Budapest Pride of all time caught observers by surprise last Saturday, the government’s communication has put forward a new interpretation every day of the event that they banned, but which ultimately took place without any disturbances.
Initially, the message was that Fidesz had actually outwitted the entire opposition by letting the parade go ahead. The idea is that the opposition parties and supporters fell into a trap by associating themselves with views not held by the majority of Hungarians.
More recently, the Fidesz communications machine, led by Viktor Orban, is trying to assign new meaning to the 2022 referendum on child protection, Telex reports.
They talk about the rejection of Pride in Hungary, citing an invalid referendum that did not even remotely touch on the issue of the Pride parade, according to Telex.
Fidesz is now citing the results of that referendum to claim that the majority of Hungarians reject what Pride stands for.
But there are some details about the referendum that the prime minister does not mention when he contrasts the “majority of Hungarians who say no to the gender described by Pride” with the “several tens of thousands” of marchers in Budapest.
For example, the 2022 referendum on child protection, in which 3.7 million people supported the government’s view, fell short of the 50% participation level that would have made the referendum valid. (telex.hu)
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3rd July, 2025
Orban Baile Tusnad speech set for July 26
Prime Minister Viktor Orban will deliver his speech at the annual Fidesz open university in Baile Tusnad, Romania on July 26, ATV reports.
Orban usually presents his assessment of the domestic and foreign policy situation on these occasions.
At last year’s event Orban said Fidesz must find courageous and young fighters with national feelings, as liberal, slim, and arrogant politicians will be on the other side. (index.hu; atv.hu)
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3rd July, 2025
Tisza claims cockroaches are in hospitals
Tisza Party official Andras Kulja wrote on Facebook on Wednesday in a post illustrated with several pictures that cockroaches have swarmed the operating theatre and the nurses’ rooms at the Peterfy Sandor Hospital in Budapest.
He wrote that the hospital staff have repeatedly complained but state secretary Peter Takacs instructed them that hospital services may not stop no matter what the circumstances are like.
The hospital later denied the accusations and said it would file a complaint against Kulja for spreading false rumour, slander and jeopardising the safe services provided to patients. (index.hu; blikk.hu; hvg.hu; telex.hu; 444.hu; magyarnemzet.hu)
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3rd July, 2025
Majority blame cabinet for Budapest budget crisis
Nearly twice as many people blame the Orban cabinet for Budapest’s financial crisis as say the city leadership is at fault, according to a new Publicus Institute survey commissioned by Nepszava.
Along with most opposition supporters, half of Fidesz voters would like to know what the money collected from local councils as solidarity contributions is spent on.
A vast majority of 78% of respondents would like to know exactly which municipalities the money is distributed to.
It is possible that there is no distribution at all and that the government does not spend the amount on the municipalities, Nepszava writes.
The money taken as solidarity contributions flows into the central budget, so it is impossible to track exactly what it is spent on, the newspaper adds. (nepszava.hu)
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