The Hungarian prime minister has said he does not want to abandon the national currency in favor of that used by the “disintegrating” bloc
Hungary will not adopt the euro as its currency, as the EU is “falling apart,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
Bloc members are obliged to eventually join the Eurozone, with the exception of Denmark, which secured an opt-out. Seven of the 27 EU member states still use their national currencies.
In an interview with economic news site EconomX on Monday, Orban was asked whether he would move towards adopting the euro in Hungary.
“It will definitely not be on my agenda,” he replied.
“The European Union is in trouble, in the process of disintegration, it is currently falling apart,” he said.
Orban argued that, in light of this, he did not want to tie Hungary’s fate to the EU any further.
The Hungarian leader has been progressively more critical of the EU in recent years, clashing with its leadership over arms supplies to Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and a shift towards militarization.
Orban has also vowed to veto Kiev’s EU bid, arguing that Ukrainian membership would destroy the bloc’s economy, and directly embroil it in a conflict with Russia.
EU leaders are increasingly pushing to fast-track Ukraine’s accession and want to finance more military aid, clearly showing that “the Brusselians want to go to war,” he wrote on X last week.
His position has led to tension with Kiev, exacerbated in recent months by Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy facilities that supply oil to landlocked Hungary.
Kiev and certain senior figures in the EU are conspiring to influence Hungarian domestic politics to put a pro-Ukrainian government in power, Orban claimed on Saturday.
His accusation echoed a report from Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), published earlier this year.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “is seriously studying regime change scenarios” in Hungary due to Orban’s overly “independent policy,” the spy agency claimed.
