Márton Nagy, National Economy Minister, submitted the government's 2026 budget bill to parliament on Tuesday.
Submitting the bill to László Kövér, the house speaker, Minister Nagy said that the most important question for 2026 was whether "Hungarian money would go to Ukraine". He added that the Brussels bureaucracy and the majority of the European Parliament wanted to require European countries, and Hungary too, to support and arm Ukraine.
He said the 2026 budget bill earmarked Hungary's resources for Hungarian families, not Ukraine. The anti-war budget puts families with children first, he added.
Minister Nagy said HUF 4,800bn had been allocated for family policy goals next year. Including spending on the regulated utilities price scheme for households, family support will add up to HUF 5,600bn, he added.
Hungary will undertake Europe's biggest tax cut programme in the interest of families, he said, adding that a personal income tax exemption for mothers of two and three children would add up to HUF 320bn and the doubling of the family tax allowance would come to HUF 290bn. Tax preferences will leave more than HUF 1,300bn with families, he said.
Pension-related expenditures, affecting over 2 million people, will come to HUF 7,700bn in 2026, including an annual pensioners' bonus and an expected growth-linked premium, he said.
A 13pc minimum wage rise will be applied in public administration, while salaries for people on municipal council payrolls will climb by 15pc, following a 15pc pay rise in 2025, too, he said. Increases of teachers' salaries will continue, and Hungarians in uniform will get a bonus equivalent to six-month's salary, adding up to HUF 450bn, he added.
Interest payments on retail government securities will come to HUF 800bn in 2026, he said.
The budget earmarks HUF 5,500bn for spending on economic development, including around HUF 2,850bn from national resources, he said. Investment spending will come close to HUF 1,600bn, he added.
Spending on border defence and protection against illegal migration will come to HUF 2,016bn, or 2pc of GDP, he said. Expenditures on extraordinary security measures will add up to HUF 1,700bn, he added.
Over HUF 4,000bn will go to education and HUF 3,919bn to healthcare. Over HUF 653bn has been allocated for cultural activities and more than HUF 135bn for church activities.
Expenditures earmarked for social and welfare institution services will rise by close to HUF 223bn to HUF 1,600bn.
Kövér said debate of the budget would start May 20 and lawmakers could submit amendments to the bill until May 22. Those amendments will be cleared by MPs on June 10 and the final vote will take place on June 16, he added.
Fielding questions, Minister Nagy said insurers had pledged on Tuesday to voluntarily adjust premiums in line with a request from the government, thus no regulatory intervention would be required.
He said consumption would remain the engine of economic growth in 2025 and highlighted the performance of the retail and tourism sectors. Performance of the industrial sector and investments hinges in large part on the recovery of the German economy, he added.
Minister Nagy said the budget bill was drafted assuming a HUF/EUR rate of 403. It assumes average annual inflation of 4.5pc in 2025 and 3.6pc in 2026, he added.
CPI could fall under 4pc around June, he said. As long as food price inflation is over 5pc, a government-mandated cap on markups for a range of food products is justified, he added.