No comment… Hungarian propaganda and economics in one picture.
We are paying attention to pensioners! In 2026, pensions will be increased by 3.6%. In addition, the 13th-month pension will be paid, as well as the first quarter of the 14th-month pension.
“COMING IN 2026! THE 13TH-MONTH PENSION AND THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 14TH-MONTH PENSION.”
If we look at the 2010 level, by 2024 the real value of wages had increased to nearly 80% compared to that baseline. Based on roughly ten months of available data this year, we can already say—albeit as an estimate—that real wage growth is likely to rise to around 85%.
This growth was among the highest in the European Union in 2024: Hungary recorded the third-highest real wage increase in the EU.
If we compare Hungary’s average wage level in 2010 to the EU average, we were at about half of the EU level back then. By 2024, we had already reached two-thirds of the EU average.
In other words, Hungary is steadily converging toward the EU’s average wage level.
Annual net average earnings (PPS) of a full-time, single worker without children (Source: Eurostat, compiled by: Piroska Szalai)
The chart shows Hungary (green bars) and the EU-27 average (blue bars) from 2010 to 2025, along with the ratio of Hungarian wages to the EU average (orange circles, right axis).
‼️💰📈 Hungarian wage growth is among the best in the EU — and even stands out globally. 👏
✅ In 2013, the purchasing power of the Hungarian average net wage (without tax benefits) was only half of the EU average — today it has reached two-thirds.
💰Hungary’s wage growth ranks among the strongest in the European Union. Since 2016, there were only two years when we did not place among the top five performers. In 2024, Hungary recorded the third-largest improvement among the member states. We are continuously closing the gap with the EU average wage: in 2024 the purchasing power of Hungarian wages exceeded that of six EU countries, was nearly identical to the Czech level, and significantly approached Portugal and Slovenia.
💰The real value growth of Hungarian wages is also outstanding on OECD level. According to the OECD Employment Outlook reports, Hungary has been among the top performers for years. The most recent 2025 edition, analyzing developments from 2021 to Q1 2025, ranked Hungary second — just behind Turkey — out of 37 examined countries.
🌏 Hungarian wage growth is also among the world’s top performers. Based on the Employment Conditions Abroad (ECA) 2025–26 salary trends report, Hungary ranks second in Europe in 2025 (after Turkey), and is expected to maintain this position in 2026. Their forecast shows that our real wage growth will place Hungary among the top 10 countries worldwide.
📊 In the past decade, Hungary has experienced an unprecedented wage boom. Since 2010, both gross and net average wages have more than tripled, while their purchasing power has nearly doubled. In the first half of 2025, the gross average wage was 82.7%, and the net average wage 91.5% higher in real terms than in 2010.
👶👧👦 Thanks to the 50% increase of the family tax allowance from July, and the new tax exemption for mothers of three children from October, net wages are expected to grow even faster than gross wages in 2025.
👩💼 As of January this year, the family tax allowance has doubled compared to a year earlier, and mothers under 40 with two children are also eligible for full tax exemption. Therefore, again this year, net wage growth is expected to outpace gross wage growth.
Looking Back: An Evaluation After the Last Municipal Assembly of the Year
Together with Budapest Fidesz, we have worked throughout the year to make the daily lives of the people of the capital better. There is no doubt that it is not always easy to operate actively against left-wing headwinds, and many of our forward-looking proposals have fallen on deaf ears.
Nevertheless, in December the Assembly supported two proposals that we initiated. This allows us to provide housing utility support for those in need and to give special assistance to our senior fellow citizens with free access to baths, cinemas, or even the zoo.
Next year we won’t slow down — in fact, we will continue with doubled strength the work that the citizens of Budapest have mandated us to do.
Budapest deserves much more! 2026, we are coming!
🎯 1️⃣ Framing: “We work, they obstruct”
Core claim:
“We are improving the lives of Budapest citizens → the left is blocking us.”
This is an excuse-narrative:
if something doesn’t succeed → it’s not the ruling party’s fault
responsibility is constantly shifted onto the opposition
Function: ➡️ no accountability → only victimhood posture
🏆 2️⃣ “Small handouts = big victory”
They cite free tickets and utility subsidies as concrete achievements.
These are:
short-term benefits
low-impact social policy fillers
not addressing real strategic urban issues (transport, housing, environment)
👉 Classic populism: expect big gratitude for tiny gifts.
🦸 3️⃣ Self-mythologizing: “We are the saviors”
Phrases like:
“our forward-looking proposals”
“the people of Budapest mandated us”
Meanwhile, election results in Budapest show the opposite.
This is reality-reframing → a manipulative victory narrative.
🚀 4️⃣ The promise of a greater future—always
“We continue with doubled strength”
“Budapest deserves much more”
“2026, we’re coming!”
No concrete program, no data. But a strong campaign message:
“Things are bad now → we will make them better.”
➡️ Fearmongering + redemption narrative.
🧠 Overall Picture
Element
Purpose
Headwind narrative
Scapegoating, shifting responsibility
Emphasis on small benefits
Vote maximization through gift-politics
Success propaganda
Reality rewritten for political gain
Grand promises
Campaign building without content
📌 Conclusion
This text does not inform — it markets politics:
it aims at emotional identification,
casts Fidesz as both victim and hero,
replaces civic responsibility with dependency on handouts.
Q: Was there a favorite moment for you in this year’s municipal assembly, and what was the worst decision?
A: I’m glad that there were quite a few decisions that brought joy to the lives of Budapest residents, showing that even though it’s not easy with a left-liberal majority in the assembly, it is still possible to push through positive initiatives from time to time. Overall, those were my favorite moments — when we could bring proposals to the assembly that genuinely improve people’s everyday lives.
For example, at the most recent session two proposals were adopted based on our initiative. One is related to support for housing utility costs, which will help those who need it most. The other was aimed specifically at pensioners in Budapest, giving them the opportunity to participate in cultural programs — for instance, visiting the zoo or going to the cinema for free with their grandchildren — helping to make the holiday season a bit nicer and more enjoyable for them.
🎯 1️⃣ “Success within failure” narrative
Core framing:
“It’s not easy in a left-liberal majority, but sometimes we still succeed.”
🔧 Technique: pre-emptive excuse + self-absolution
If achievements are few → “they blocked us”
If anything passes → “see, even despite them, we delivered”
👉 This isn’t performance evaluation — it’s excuse-management.
🏆 2️⃣ Inflating tiny handouts into major achievements
Yes, you’re seeing it right — he’s already drunk, and his speech… well…
It’s already terrible that if someone asks the question “war or peace?”, then of course the answer is peace. I simply don’t understand how there can be people who call themselves Hungarian and still say: “No, no, we must attack the Russians and we must help Ukraine.” What benefit do we get from that? And if we make too much noise, we’ll end up with an atomic bomb dropped on us. Well, no thank you. So I absolutely do not want war. Peace is perfectly fine for me. Okay? That’s all.
War, migration, and energy security. Without claiming to be exhaustive, on these fateful issues Brussels repeatedly gives the wrong answers, thereby hindering the prosperity of European people and essentially putting the future of the entire continent at risk.
The failed record of the Brussels leadership is clear: Europe’s countries are being drawn ever deeper into war day by day, while migrants flood the streets of Western Europe’s major cities and household energy bills skyrocket brutally across the continent.
By contrast, there are us, Hungarians, who were the first to take a stand and make it clear that we will stay out of the war, will not accept a single migrant, and will not give up Russian energy sources—thus preserving Europe’s lowest utility costs.
Here we have a national government, so we stand on the ground of common sense and reality, guided by a single consideration: the interests of the Hungarian people.
Brussels’ failed policies are becoming ever more obvious, and it is clear that the voice of the people cannot be silenced: a patriotic revolution has begun across Europe. Hungarians are no longer alone, and in more and more countries the realization is gaining a majority that only national governments are capable of putting a stop to our continent’s downward spiral.
That is precisely why the Hungarian election is so important to Brussels: they want to remove us from the way, because the Hungarian government is a clear refutation of the policies that plunged Europe into crisis—and they see that more and more countries are following the Hungarian example.
We know the Brussels recipe: they want a puppet government that obeys in everything, where the national interest does not come first, but Brussels’ instructions do. To fall in line with the mainstream, send money, weapons, and soldiers to Ukraine, let in migrants, and sever ties with Russian energy—even if gas or electricity ends up costing three times as much.
This is what is at stake in the 2026 election: Will we stay out of the war, or be dragged into it? Will we keep migrants out, or let them in? Will we protect reduced utility costs, or allow energy prices to soar?
🎯 1️⃣ Central Frame: “Brussels = failure, danger, chaos”
The opening statement is already a judgment, not an assessment:
“Brussels consistently gives wrong answers… endangering the future of the entire continent.”
🔧 Technique:
sweeping generalization (“Brussels” as a single malicious actor)
unproven causal links (→ therefore we have war, migration, expensive energy)
👉 Key point: no data, no comparison, no alternative causal explanation.
⚔️ 2️⃣ Merging three separate fear clusters
The text fuses three unrelated issues into a single “chain of threats”:
war
migration
energy prices
🔧 Technique: issue stacking → accepting one fear automatically validates the other two.
👉 Not analysis — psychological pressure.
🛡️ 3️⃣ “Us vs. Them” — moral division
“In contrast, there is us, the Hungarians…”
🔧 Technique:
monopolizing collective identity
anyone who disagrees is no longer part of “us”
👉 Exclusionary logic, not democratic debate.
🔋 4️⃣ Utility price cuts as unquestionable truth
“We preserve the lowest energy bills in Europe.”
🔧 Trick:
no definition (net? gross? with subsidies?)
no timeframe
no methodology for comparison
👉 “Energy bills” become a symbol, not an economic metric.
The globalist media have surely started their New Year’s Eve drinking early, but this is all the more a warning sign for all of us.
The world-famous Reuters has written what looks like a dystopian fever-dream scenario for 2026, in which World War III breaks out and Europe goes to war with Russia.
Why would anyone write something like this, why would anyone fantasize about it? No sane person can give an answer to that — although we should not trust the sanity of the pro-war forces in Brussels for a single second.
What is even more instructive is this: in this horrific plan, they literally write that if Péter Magyar were to come to power, he would represent a pro-Ukrainian and pro-war position, thereby helping to ignite the Western European war machine.
We are not saying this — they are. The pro-war, globalist forces have crystal-clear expectations toward TISZA, and they put it in writing: to overthrow the anti-war national government and to form a pro-war Brussels puppet government that would support Ukraine with all its strength.
I believe not a single Hungarian wants this — and we must show this together in April.
📌 Rhetorical Analysis: War Fear as a Political Weapon
The text you quoted is a textbook example of fear-based war propaganda, built from several well-known rhetorical techniques.
🎯 1️⃣ Source Delegitimization (“globalist media”)
The internationally respected Reuters is dismissed not through factual rebuttal, but through ridicule:
“New Year’s Eve drinking”
“dystopian fever dream”
👉 This is not refutation, but preemptive discrediting, designed to ensure the audience rejects the source before engaging with its content.
🌍 2️⃣ Abstract Apocalypse (“World War III”)
No concrete decision-makers
No timelines
No mechanisms
“2026” functions only as a psychological countdown, not as evidence.
👉 War here is not a policy outcome, but an emotional trigger.
🧠 3️⃣ “Sane vs. Insane” Framing
“No sane person can answer why anyone would write this”
This frame implies:
Those who question the narrative → irrational
Critics → agents of “Brussels war forces”
👉 A classic exclusionary moral frame, replacing debate with identity labeling.
🧍♂️ 4️⃣ Personalized Scapegoating
Magyar Péter is portrayed as:
pro-Ukrainian
pro-war
servant of Western military interests
👉 These are intentional attributions without evidence, turning political competition into moral threat.
🧵 5️⃣ Conspiracy Narrative Construction
Recurring vague enemies:
“globalist forces”
“Brussels puppet government”
“crystal-clear expectations”
👉 Undefined actors = claims that cannot be falsified.
🗳️ 6️⃣ Electoral Mobilization Through Fear
“This must be shown together in April”
The election is framed not as democratic choice, but as existential survival.
👉 The implicit message: Vote for us = peace. Vote against us = war.
🧩 7️⃣ False Dichotomy
“peace-loving national government” vs.
“pro-war Brussels puppet regime”
👉 No middle ground, no nuance, no legitimate disagreement allowed.
⚠️ One-Sentence Diagnosis
This text is not about Reuters, nor about real security analysis — it is a domestic mobilization myth, where war is used as a communication weapon rather than a policy reality.
Sírnak, hisztiznek a Brüsszel pártpolitikusok, hogy jövőre is a gazdag településeknek szolidaritási hozzájárulást kell fizetniük Észak-Pestnek is például. Sajnálják a pénzt, mert ők legszívesebben küldenék ki Ukrajnába a háborúra, így viszont az állam egyrészt támogatja a szegényebb önkormányzatokat, másrészt támogatja a magyar családokat, az adócsökkentést, a nyugdíjemelést, a vállalkozások terheinek a csökkentését, nem küldjük Ukrajnába a lóvét.
They’re crying and throwing tantrums — the Brussels-backed party politicians — because next year wealthy municipalities will again have to pay a solidarity contribution to places like North-Pest. They’re upset about the money, since they would much rather send it off to Ukraine for the war. But this way, the state supports poorer local municipalities, supports Hungarian families, tax cuts, pension increases, and reducing the burdens on businesses. We’re not sending the cash to Ukraine.
What is it that we have achieved in this country by 2025, or over the past 15 years? Dear friends, we, the members of Fidesz, have built a work-based society in Hungary since 2010. We are the ones who created a work-based Hungary instead of a welfare-based Hungary.
This is what the Tisza party wants to undo. Tisza wants a welfare-based society. Tisza members would take money away from those who work and give it to those who do not.
That is the Tisza program. And this is what we must prevent together: that they collect more money from people and give less back to Hungarians.
The flooding of the Tisza is not an opportunity — it is a danger.
1️⃣ False Dichotomy
“Work-based” vs. “Welfare-based” society
👉 As if the following did not exist:
support for workers,
unemployment benefits,
social safety nets as economic stabilizers.
This is not a policy debate — it’s a moral framing.
2️⃣ Moral Stigmatization
“Taking money from those who work and giving it to those who don’t”
👉 Classic stigmatizing frame:
worker = good
supported person = lazy / undeserving
No data. No evidence. No concrete program.
3️⃣ Enemy Construction + Fear-mongering
“Not an opportunity, but a danger”
👉 Not argument, but fear mobilization:
flood metaphor (loss of control)
collective threat
“us vs. them”
4️⃣ Self-justification through Retrospective Myth
“15 years of achievement”
👉 The message:
does not measure,
does not compare,
does not prove —
it simply shuts down debate by asserting “what exists is good.”
