Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pledged not to send funds to Ukraine, praised US President Donald Trump’s dramatic military intervention in Venezuela and reaffirmed Hungary’s willingness to work with Russia in a combative New Year international press briefing address for 2026.
Speaking during an hours-long international press conference, Orbán denounced what he called Europe’s “war economy,” insisting Hungary would neither provide military aid nor financing to Ukraine, opting instead for what he described as a “peace economy.”
Hungary would “mobilize our economic resources for Hungarians and Hungarian families,” Orbán said, adding that this approach would allow the country to “stay out of war.”
“We will not give our money to Ukraine,” he said in remarks cited by TVP World. “We won’t give a war loan either – this is a scam! Everyone knows it won’t be paid back.”
Orbán said Budapest would pursue a distinctly “Hungarian path,” maintaining cooperation not only with the US but also with Russia, China and Central Asia, and hailed Hungary’s sovereignty in contrast to the EU’s perceived increasing trend toward centralization.
The speech comes as Orbán faces what may be the stiffest challenge of his 16-year rule ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for April.
Péter Magyar’s Tisza party – a center-right, pro-European force – has emerged as the frontrunner, buoyed by voter frustration over prolonged economic stagnation, soaring living costs and a high-profile abuse scandal.
In office since 2010, Orbán has struggled to pull Hungary out of an inflationary surge triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The economy has endured three consecutive years of stagnation, despite government efforts that have included tax cuts, wage hikes and subsidized homebuyer loans.
Those measures have helped lift polling numbers but at the cost of a widening budget deficit, mounting inflation risks and stalled progress in reducing the European Union’s largest debt load outside the euro zone.
Orbán acknowledged on Monday that Hungary had failed to secure the financial support it had sought from Washington ahead of the 2026 ballot.
“I have requested a [financial] shield, but the type of assistance that would have been acceptable for both the US and Hungary was not available,” Orban told the press conference, according to Reuters.
Despite that setback, Orbán lauded Trump for a surprise military operation over the weekend in which US forces launched sweeping strikes on Caracas, seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from his bedroom and transferred him into US custody.
Maduro made his first appearance in a New York City court on Monday, pleading not guilty to narco-terrorism charges.
Orbán described the intervention as emblematic of a “new world” and “a new language... that the world will speak in the future,” expressing hope it would help drive down energy prices.
“With Venezuela, the United States is now able to control 40 to 50 percent of the world’s oil reserves,” he told the news conference, predicting a drop in prices.