Orban Targets Rural Pensioners With Spending Before Hungary Vote
(Bloomberg) -- Hungary will give grants to pensioners in rural villages to help them renovate their homes, as Prime Minister Viktor Orban looks to boost flagging support before key elections.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Citadel to Leave Namesake Chicago Tower as Employees Relocate
Transportation Memos Favor Places With Higher Birth and Marriage Rates
San Francisco Wants Wealthy Donors to Help Fix Fentanyl Crisis
Orban’s Fidesz party has ruled Hungary uninterruptedly for 15 years, and pensioners in the countryside are a bedrock of its support. In just over a year’s time, Orban faces a crucial election in which he faces political upstart Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party recently overtook Fidesz in polls for the first time.
Magyar’s party has done so by capitalizing on Hungary’s cost-of-living crisis. The government’s latest proposal will give 3 million forint ($7,697) to pensioners in towns of less than 5,000 people who are looking to modernize their homes, said the premier in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
With an estimated price tag of 90 billion forint over two years, the program is unlikely to crash the country’s budget. The Hungarian premier is under investor pressure to avert a repeat of record spending ahead of 2022 vote, when the outlays fueled the European Union’s fastest inflation and pushed the forint to the brink of a currency crisis.
Economy Minister Marton Nagy, who has been responsible for the budget since last month, has pledged fiscal discipline before elections. Hungary saw a pickup in economic growth following an exit from a recession in the fourth quarter.
The government is targeting a shortfall of 3.7% of gross domestic product this year after an estimated 4.8% last year, which was higher than an upwardly revised 4.5% goal. Hungary is among eight EU members subject to the bloc’s excessive deficit procedure, which threaten fines for fiscal offenders unless they correct shortfalls.
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
Amazon and SpaceX Want In on India’s Satellite Internet Market
Believing in Aliens Derailed This Internet Pioneer’s Career. Now He’s Facing Prison
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
