Hungarian households would face unbearable financial burdens if the Tisza Party’s energy programme were implemented, the Századvég Foundation stated on Thursday. The think tank argued that party leader Péter Magyar would meet Brussels’ demand to cut Hungary off from Russian energy, a step that would drastically increase household expenses.
According to the analysis, such a policy would raise an average family’s annual electricity and gas bills by around 510,000 forints, while low-income households would see an increase of 540,000 forints. “More than one million households would simply be unable to pay,” Századvég warned.
The foundation highlighted that the Tisza Party’s programme combines “drastic tax hikes” with the planned ban on Russian energy imports, which could lead to fuel prices above 1,000 forints per litre and energy bills three and a half times higher than current levels.
Századvég noted that before the government’s utility cost reduction scheme, one in four households could not afford to pay their bills, while this figure has fallen to seven percent by 2024. Under the Tisza plan, however, the share of households unable to pay would rise again to 29 percent, affecting 1.2 million households – or 2.8 million Hungarians.
“The Tisza Party’s energy programme would reverse the positive trend of the past decade and trigger severe social tensions with unpredictable consequences,” the think tank concluded.
