Orbán turns food price fears into election weapon

As Hungary heads into a high-stakes election on Sunday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is turning food prices into a central campaign weapon, casting his government’s price controls as a shield for households while warning voters they could disappear under the opposition.

While the campaign has been marred by high geopolitical tensions, allegations of corruption and even treachery, concerns over rising food prices remain front and centre for voters.

As cost-of-living worries grow amid the conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine, Orbán’s government is warning voters that national controls on food and fuel prices could be on the chopping block if the opposition Tisza party (EPP) takes power.

The economy ministry said its efforts to curb bills are lifting purchasing power, singling out controversial caps on supermarket margins.

The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that food prices decreased by 3.2% compared to the same period last year, accusing the pro-EU Tisza of not siding with Hungarian families.

Food margin caps were introduced last year following a wave of supermarket boycotts in several countries neighbouring Hungary, and have since been repeatedly extended in scope and duration.

They limit mark‑ups at 10% on selected products – such as chicken, milk and butter – for retailers with an annual turnover above one billion forints (€2.6 million) and will apply until the end of May.

Meanwhile, Tisza has slammed Orbán’s interventionist approach as “incompatible with a well-functioning market economy” and cautiously called for a gradual phase-out of the caps. Party leader Péter Magyar has instead pushed for VAT cuts on food products.

This prompted Orbán’s chief adviser, Piroska Szalai, to sound the alarm over the opposition’s potential plans, saying they could hit families hard.

“They would rip off Hungarian families for the sake of Brussels, Ukraine and multinationals!”, she wrote on social media. Orbán has also made Ukraine a frequent target on the agricultural front, claiming it is swamping EU markets with grain and portraying its EU accession bid as a threat.

Szalai said that government intervention had helped rein in what she called excessive pricing by large food retailers – a view at odds with Brussels, which has raised concerns about the legality of such measures.

Hungary’s price controls are under legal scrutiny in the EU, with the Commission giving Orbán a formal rebuke last December.

Brussels said the measures risk breaching EU law by forcing retailers – particularly large, non-Hungarian chains – to sell at a loss, and warned it could take the case to court.

Orbán is no stranger to clashes with the EU over economic policies. In 2022, the EU’s top court ruled against a Hungarian law imposing regulated prices on basic food items.

(ssm, aw)