BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary should not adopt the euro currency as the European Union is “disintegrating” and Hungary should not tie its fate closer to the bloc, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday in an interview with economic news site EconomX.
Hungary, which depends for most of its trade on the 27-member bloc and has modernised its economy with billions of euros of EU funds since it joined two decades ago, does not currently meet the conditions for euro adoption.
Unlike Denmark, Hungary does not have a legal opt-out from joining the currency bloc. Some of its neighbours in the EU’s eastern wing, including Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, also remain outside the euro area, at least for now.
In power since 2010, Orban has become an increasingly vocal critic of the EU, which has suspended billions of euros of funds for Hungary due to the nationalist leader’s rule-of-law reforms.
“Hungary should not tie its fate closer to the European Union than now, and adopting the euro would be the closest possible link,” he said.
Orban’s comments were in stark contrast to the policy agenda of his surging opposition rival Peter Magyar, who is campaigning on a pledge to unfreeze suspended EU money and bring one of the EU’s poorer economies closer to euro adoption.
Parliamentary elections are going to be held in spring 2026. The date has not yet been set.
While Orban has avoided direct comment on central bank policy since Mihaly Varga, his former finance minister, took over in April, he said on Monday that the bank’s 6.5% main interest rate, the EU’s joint-highest, was “higher than it could be”.
The bank marked a year-long pause in rate easing in September, which has helped the forint strengthen to a 15-month high versus the euro as the bank seeks to stem a flow of domestic savings towards foreign currencies, including the euro.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Gergely Szakacs, Alexandra Hudson)
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