Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister's Office, said the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal, adopted at an informal EU summit held under Hungary's presidency in Budapest last week, could "bring about a turnaround".
During a government press briefing on Thursday, Gulyás said the bloc faces "countless" challenges, and "Brussels is more often than not a part of the problem rather than the solution, so it's crucial that member states come up with initiatives that serve the whole of Europe." He added that Europe lagged behind China and the US owing to the bloc's waning competitiveness.
Companies in Europe pay significantly more operating costs, especially energy, than companies in the US and China, he said.
EU regulations in the past decade had not taken competitiveness into account, he said, focusing instead on a "forced and senseless" green policy that did not serve environmental protection goals but harmed the European economy, he added.
"We do not believe the declaration adopted in Budapest will improve everything, but it will be inevitable to prioritise competitiveness" in decision-making, Gulyás said.
Meanwhile, Gulyás said that securing peace was in Europe's interest, adding that "the US presidential election has triggered a need to speak about peace... From now on the United States will shift from the side of war to the pro-peace camp."
Concerning bilateral ties with the US, Gulyás said: "The alliance between Hungary and the US has never been as strong as it will be after Donald Trump assumes office." He said this was also indicated by symbolic gestures, noting that the Hungarian prime minister had been the first among European leaders to speak with the president-elect.
He said the "disruptive factors will also disappear" and "we are sure that the United States will have an ambassador to Hungary who has read the Vienna Convention and will work for good relations between the two governments."
Regarding the 2025 budget submitted to parliament this week, Gulyas said the bill was a reflection of the government's "new economic policy".
"We can realistically expect that peace will become achievable in Europe next year," Gulyas said, adding that this would pave the way for more money channelled towards economic development, pay rises, housing and family subsidies.
He noted the government plans to double the tax allowance for families with children, roll out zero-interest credit for young workers, and introduce new housing subsidies in 2025 while launching the Demjan Sandor Programme to scale up small and medium-sized businesses.
The 2025 budget "carves into stone" pensioners' annual bonus, equivalent to a full month's pension, while ensuring the resources necessary for family subsidies and the implementation of measures in the government's 21-point economic policy action plan, he added.
Addressing talks between employers and unions on a three-year minimum wage agreement, Gulyas said the sides were "close to a deal". The government has issued a mandate to the national economy minister to offer government support in reaching an agreement, if necessary, he added.
He said the goal was for an average gross wage of 1 million forints and a minimum wage of 400,000 in Hungary in the next few years.
Gulyás said the government would raise the amount of housing support employers may offer their workers with tax preferences. He said such measures supported government efforts to ensure housing affordability.
He said it was important to raise wages in water management, too, and pledged a 30 percent hike.
Government spokeswoman Eszter Vitalyos said the government will launch some 300 new infrastructure projects next year worth a combined 8,100 billion forints. She added that the projects earmarked for 2025 will cost the treasury 480 billion forints. Among them, she mentioned improvements along the Debrecen-Nyiregyhaza railway line, the development of a major highway connecting the same two cities, the addition of new campuses at Pazmany Peter Catholic University and Obuda University, as well as upgrading Debrecen's water supply and the sewerage system in Karcag.
Meanwhile, asked about leaked audio recordings of Peter Magyar in the leader of the opposition Tisza Party using "foul language to describe his own followers", Gulyás said it was "obvious" that "Magyar deeply despises and looks down on his own voters".
"Honouring the will of the voters is a fundamental requirement for participation in politics; voters' trust cannot be earned otherwise," he said.
"We learned from none other than the party leader himself that representatives of foreign interests are in the European Parliament and in the Tisza Party," Gulyás said. He said it was in the country's interest that Hungary was represented by MEPs "who can, notwithstanding any domestic dispute, promote the national interest".
Asked about his past relationship with Magyar, Gulyás said there had been things the two of them had agreed and disagreed on, "but we were in full agreement that he's insane".
Asked to comment on Magyar's insistence that he was being bugged and that the government was using AI to create damaging content about him, Gulyás said: "These are claims that come from insanity." He said there was no evidence to back up Magyar's claims, and the government had never and would never use the secret services to spy on its opponents.
Gulyás said Evelin Vogel, Magyar's former partner, had never received any assignments from Fidesz. He said he also had no knowledge of Vogel having received any assignments from companies linked to Fidesz, "but I'm also reading the news reports about this, and the statements made in the press are clear".
Gulyás dismissed opinion polls indicating the Tisza Party was ahead of Fidesz, saying that such pollsters did not gauge public opinion but tried to shape politics.