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Hungary asks EU for suspension of sanctions against Russian energy

Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, called for the European Union on Monday to suspend sanctions on Russian energy and convened a government emergency meeting.to address rising fuel costs.just five weeks prior to a pivotal election. The war in Iran has fueled a rise in oil prices that have pushed up diesel and petrol costs in Hungary. Orban is now facing a challenge as he prepares for parliamentary elections on April 12, where he will be fighting to maintain his 16-year hold on power.

Orban's Fidesz is trailing the centre-right Tisza despite having launched a series of measures that have increased the budget deficit. However, the result of the election remains uncertain. The figures released earlier on Monday revealed that the budget deficit in the first half of 2026 was close to the target of?half.

The Middle East war and Ukraine's oil blockade are pushing up prices. Orban, in a blog post on X, wrote that Europe must accept reality. We need to review all sanctions against Russian energy and lift them.

On Monday, oil prices soared above $119 per barrel. This was the highest level since mid-2022. Governments scrambled in an effort to minimize the impact of this on their economies and consumers.

Orban claimed he called the meeting to "protect Hungarians" from high fuel costs. He said in a Facebook posting that fuel prices "cannot rise to an unbearable amount."

Orban's previous government had set a cap on?fuel prices for April 2022 in an attempt to control inflation. Orban won the election by a large margin. He was forced to remove the fuel price cap in December 2022 due to fuel shortages caused by a lack imports and panic buying.

Hungary faces additional pressure as the?flows? of Russian oil through Druzhba?pipeline are suspended since late January, when Kyiv claimed that the pipeline had been damaged by a Russian strike. This interruption has caused tensions between Kyiv and Hungary.

(source: Reuters)