Gulyás on new price caps and changes in public procurement law

One of the most important announcements at today’s government press briefing was that the government is introducing price caps on eggs and potatoes. Within a few days, retailers will have to sell these food items at the price level they were on 30 September.

Gulyás originally said that the price cap would only apply to M-sized eggs but the PM’s office later informed Telex that the price cap will apply to all eggs and late potatoes. The price of new potatoes and sweet potatoes will remain at market prices. The details will be published in the government decree.

Eggs and potatoes are joining a growing list of items which can only be sold at capped prices in Hungary. Gas prices were the first to be capped in November of 2021. It was also well before the war in Ukraine began, on 12 January that Viktor Orbán announced that due to high inflation, the prices of granulated sugar, wheat flour, sunflower oil, pork shanks, chicken breast and 2.8% UHT cow's milk would be capped from 1 February. The prices of the selected products had to be set back to the level they were at on 15 October of last year in all shops. A day later, the price of chicken rumps was also frozen. And in September, an official price was introduced for firewood.

The Russians can only be thankful for the sanctions

The Slovak foreign minister recently said that the Hungarian government's arguments about the sanctions on Russia were like something out of the Kremlin's handbook.

According to Gergely Gulyás, this is a sneaky statement, and the reason for it might be a "serious complex". "The Russians can only be thankful for the sanctions," the minister said, adding that those who supported the sanctions have greatly contributed to Russia's economic stabilization and to their record high revenues this year.

Gulyás argued that the Hungarian government had advocated that the EU should not provide extra profits to Russia. He did not add that PM Orbán also signed the sanctions packages.

The PM’s Chief of Staff also said that the Slovaks have a lot to thank Viktor Orbán for, as he was the one who succeeded in getting Hungary and Slovakia exempted from the oil embargo in Brussels.

“Some requests”

According to Gulyás, there were some requests "from Brussels" during the negotiations that would have violated Hungarian national interests, but he does not want to give any examples because he believes it would not be in the government’s interest.

“An unappeasable hatred towards Hungary”

The European Parliament's Public Education Committee visited Hungary recently, and János Csák, Minister of Culture and Innovation met with them. Gulyás said that he does not expect a balanced opinion from the committee, because there is an "unappeasable hatred towards Hungary". But Budapest is a nice city, so they had a good time here, he said.

On teachers' pay raise and public procurement tenders

On Tuesday Tibor Navracsics (Minister of Regional Development and the Utilization of EU Funds) said that the Hungarian government would like to conclude an agreement with the European Commission about the two organizations each financing 50 percent of the teachers' pay raise.

Gergely Gulyás said that the reason why the Hungarian government is unable to give their 50 percent right now is that they are waiting for EU funds to come in, as this will be financed from the recovery fund. "We can allocate the EU funds we are entitled to for the teachers' pay raise," he said.

The government has also pledged to the European Commission that it would reduce the proportion of single-actor public procurements. For four years now, the government and state-owned companies have been using Gyula Balássy's companies exclusively for their communications and advertising.

Gulyás said that by changing the public procurement rules, their goal is not to determine who will win, but to guarantee competition. If Balássy's company is the best on the market, then he should win. The minister said it is not for him, but the market to answer the question of whether it is realistic that one company has been winning public communications tenders for years.

What about Sweden and Finland?

How many laws are still in the queue before the Swedish and Finnish NATO ratification in Parliament? – the question was presented to Gulyás, who said that the proposals the European Commission is asking for must be processed first, but that "the Swedes and the Finns can count on us".

Telex recently raised the same question to several ministers and MPs in the Hungarian parliament. See what they said in this video.