According to Prime Minister Orbán, the key question facing the continent is whether Europe will remain a peace economy or transition toward a war economy, and Hungary’s strategy is to resist that shift and protect its own economic model.
At the beginning of his remarks, Prime Minister Orbán cautioned the audience that many of the economic scenarios discussed earlier in the conference assume stable conditions that may not materialize. “Everything you heard here describes a peace economy,” he said. “But who said that a peace economy will exist?”
Based on discussions at European Council meetings, the prime minister argued that Western European leaders are increasingly focused on military spending and wartime economic preparations rather than development strategies. “Where I sit and work, from the German chancellor to the French president, all we discuss is how to switch the European economy to a war economy in the next four years,” he said.
The prime minister said the past four years have already shown the economic impact of the war in Ukraine. While the EU economy has grown only around 1% annually, the United States has expanded by 2% to 3%, and China by roughly 5%. During the same period, he said, Europe has lost around 1 million industrial jobs, and its share of the global economy has declined.
Energy policy has also played a central role in Europe’s economic slowdown, according to the prime minister. He argued that abandoning Russian energy supplies has significantly increased costs for European economies. “Europeans pay three or four times more for energy than the Americans or the Chinese,” he said, adding that the continent has spent roughly €1.8 trillion more on energy since the war began than it would have otherwise.
Prime Minister Orbán also criticized the growing scale of European financial support for Ukraine. European countries have already sent approximately €200 billion to Kyiv, he said, and additional packages are under discussion. “They are taking loans to send money to Ukraine,” he said. “In reality, they are sending the future of their children and grandchildren.”
In contrast, the prime minister emphasized that Hungary has chosen a different path. Rather than financing the war effort, the government has directed resources toward domestic economic programs, including support for families, businesses, and energy development. He pointed to measures such as expanded family tax benefits, wage growth, and the Sándor Demján Program, which allocates significant funding to the Hungarian economy.
“Our strategy is the opposite,” Prime Minister Orbán said. “We will stay out of the war, and we will stay out of its financing.”
Looking ahead, the prime minister identified three decisive issues that will shape Hungary’s economic future: the course of the war in Ukraine, the country’s energy security, and the question of Ukraine’s potential accession to the European Union.
On energy, he stressed that Hungary intends to maintain diversified supply, including Russian sources, arguing that cutting existing supply routes would not represent diversification but, in his words, “simply narrow options.”
He also warned that Ukraine’s EU membership could dramatically reshape the Union’s finances, particularly in agriculture and cohesion funding. According to Prime Minister Orbán, current proposals would redirect large portions of the EU budget toward Ukraine, which could significantly affect member states’ development resources.
Summing up Hungary’s strategy for the coming years, Prime Minister Orbán outlined several clear priorities: “We must not allow ourselves to be dragged into a war, we must not send the Hungarian people’s money to Ukraine, and we must preserve our access to affordable energy.”
If Hungary succeeds in maintaining this course, he concluded, the country will be able to pursue the growth plans and economic ambitions discussed at the conference. “If we succeed in these battles,” the prime minister said, “then the development plans you heard about today can truly become reality.”