{"id":3237,"date":"2026-05-26T23:43:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/hungarian-pm-magyar-clashes-with-brussels-over-special-tax-dispute\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:43:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:43:04","slug":"hungarian-pm-magyar-clashes-with-brussels-over-special-tax-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/hungarian-pm-magyar-clashes-with-brussels-over-special-tax-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungarian PM Magyar clashes with Brussels over special tax dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>According to Junge Freiheit<\/em>, <strong>Magyar<\/strong> told Austrian Chancellor <strong>Christian St\u00f6cker<\/strong> during a visit to Austria last week that the Hungarian budget is in poor condition and his priority is to pass a budget based on reliable data. He asked for patience on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>The legal challenge has been underway since late April, when <strong>Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> was still Prime Minister, <em>Junge Freiheit reports<\/em>. The European Commission argues the tax violates EU freedom of establishment principles because it exclusively targets non-Hungarian companies. Brussels is also examining a state aid case against Budapest.<\/p>\n<h2>Tax Introduced During Pandemic Targets German Retailers<\/h2>\n<p>The Fidesz government under Orb\u00e1n introduced the special levy in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Foreign retailers operating in Hungary have since been required to remit a portion of their annual revenue to the state, most recently set at 4.5 percent. Major German companies including <strong>Lidl<\/strong>, <strong>Aldi<\/strong>, and <strong>Penny<\/strong> are among those affected.<\/p>\n<p>The tax, combined with temporary food price controls, led French retail giant <strong>Auchan<\/strong> to withdraw from the Hungarian market in 2024. The company&#8217;s stores were sold to domestic real estate entrepreneur <strong>D\u00e1niel Jellinek<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Magyar Promised Constructive EU Partnership<\/h2>\n<p>Before April&#8217;s parliamentary elections, in which Magyar&#8217;s <strong>Tisza Party<\/strong> secured a constitution-changing majority, he pledged to be a constructive EU partner. Under Orb\u00e1n&#8217;s leadership, Brussels had frozen 33 billion euros in funding to Hungary.<\/p>\n<p>EU Commission President <strong>Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> is scheduled to meet with the Hungarian Prime Minister on Thursday to negotiate release of the frozen funds. Beyond demanding the rollback of Orb\u00e1n&#8217;s judicial and media reforms, she is also calling for the elimination of several protectionist measures and the introduction of social reforms.<\/p>\n<p>Hungary recorded a budget deficit of 4.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2025.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/jungefreiheit.de\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Junge Freiheit<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hungary&#8217;s new Prime Minister P\u00e9ter Magyar will maintain a controversial tax on foreign retailers despite EU legal threats, citing poor budget conditions and asking for patience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":3236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[725,3181,159,3180,886,884,3179],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-3237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-brussels","tag-european-court-of-justice","tag-european-union","tag-foreign-retailers","tag-hungary","tag-peter-magyar","tag-special-tax","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3237"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=3237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}