Hungary’s government will introduce a price cap on gasoline and diesel at fueling stations starting at midnight local time, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Monday.
The move got here against the backdrop of soaring global oil prices because the Iran war, now in its second week, ensnares countries and infrastructure critical to the production and movement of oil and gas.
In a video posted on social media, Orbán said “the international oil price explosion has reached Hungary as well,” and that the federal government would cap the value of gasoline at 595 forints ($1.75) per liter and diesel at 615 forints ($1.81) per liter.
He added that the capped price would only apply to vehicles with Hungarian license plates and registration documents, and that Hungary would liberate its oil reserves to make sure adequate supply.
Orbán’s populist government, which is facing a significant challenge against a center-right opponent in elections next month, placed an identical cap on fuel prices in November 2021 as prices soared following mass disruptions attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cap was in place for greater than a yr before the federal government scrapped it resulting from soaring consumption and fuel shortages stemming from falling imports and production problems.
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Earlier on Monday, Orbán, considered the Kremlin’s closest partner within the EU, urged the European Union to lift all sanctions on Russian fossil fuels to treatment the spikes in energy prices attributable to the Iran war.
Orbán’s government has long opposed EU efforts to chop Russian energy imports, and together with neighboring Slovakia has maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas since Moscow launched all-out war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Each countries have received a brief exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, and have until recently taken Russian crude supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine.
But oil deliveries through the Druzhba have been halted since Jan. 27, resulting in an escalating feud between Hungary and Ukraine. The Ukrainian government says that a Russian drone strike damaged the pipeline’s infrastructure, but Orbán has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of deliberately holding up the oil supplies.
In response, Orbán vetoed a brand new round of EU sanctions against Russia, and is obstructing a significant 90-billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan for Ukraine until flows are resumed.
Orbán, lagging in most polls only a month before the election, has accused Zelenskyy of in search of to cause an energy crisis in Hungary, so as to influence the final result of the vote — a part of his government’s sweeping anti-Ukraine media campaign leading as much as the April 12 ballot.
Further inflaming tensions, Hungary on Thursday temporarily detained seven Ukrainian state bank employees and seized two Ukrainian armored cars carrying tens of hundreds of thousands of euros in money and gold across Hungary on suspicion of cash laundering.
Ukraine has insisted the money shipment was part of standard services between state banks, and strongly denied the cash laundering allegations.
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