Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called on the European Union to suspend sanctions on Russian energy and convened an emergency government meeting to address rising fuel prices just five weeks before a pivotal election.
Soaring oil prices, fuelled by the war in Iran, drove diesel and petrol prices in Hungary higher, adding to challenges Orban faces in the run-up to a parliamentary election on April 12.
Despite having launched a string of voter-pleasing measures, which have widened the budget deficit, Orban's Fidesz party is behind the centre-right Tisza in most polls, although the outcome of the vote remains highly uncertain.
Figures released earlier on Monday showed that a pension top-up, increased family benefits, and wage hikes pushed the deficit close to half of the full-year target in the first two months of 2026.
Oil prices surged over $119 a barrel on Monday, hitting levels not seen since mid-2022 as governments scrambled to limit the impact on economies and consumers.
Orban said on Monday he convened the government meeting "to protect Hungarian families" from high fuel prices. In a Facebook post, he said fuel prices cannot be allowed to rise "to an unbearable level."
His previous government had capped fuel prices in 2021 in a bid to curb surging inflation before the April 2022 election, which Orban then won with a landslide.
However, he was forced to scrap that fuel price cap in December 2022 after a lack of imports and panic-buying led to fuel shortages.
Hungary is facing additional pressures as flows of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline have been suspended since late January, when Kiev says the pipeline was damaged by a Russian attack. This stoppage has led to political tensions with Kiev.
