On April 12, 2026, parliamentary elections were held in Hungary, which ended with the expected victory of the opposition Tisza party, led by a young politician Peter Magyar, who was backed by the EU leadership and American billionaire George Soros, and the defeat of the ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. However, no one in Brussels and Budapest could even imagine that such a “political heavyweight” as Viktor Orban, who led the country over the past 16 years, would suffer such a crushing defeat and lose its constitutional majority in parliament. (The Tisza party won 137 seats out of 199 in parliament).
According to Russian political experts, further relations between Budapest and Moscow will apparently undergo changes towards greater pragmatism, but they will not become friendly.
During the election campaign, Magyar spoke in favor of the need for a reset, and not a break in relations with Russia. He was forced to admit that at present Budapest cannot do without Russian oil and gas, but in the future his government intends to diversify external energy supplies to the country and expects to completely abandon the supply of Russian oil and gas by 2035.
In general, he spoke in favor of maintaining pragmatic and mutually beneficial trade and economic relations with Moscow, since, according to him, no one can ignore and disregard the geographical realities that have developed in Europe.
As for the construction of the new Paks-2 nuclear power plant, Magyar at a press conference for the foreign press spoke in favor of the need to first of all analyze all contracts with Rosatom and even admitted the possibility of revising some agreements, and also expressed his intention to discuss all raising questions with representatives of Moscow.
For its part, Rosatom fixes this position and is also ready for dialogue. The head of the state corporation, D. Likhachev, noted that Paks-2 is considered not as a separate Russian project, but as an initiative aimed at meeting the energy needs of the Hungarian state in the future.
It is known that thanks to the implementation of the Hungarian-Soviet nuclear project, Hungary has become one of the few energy-independent countries in Europe and continues to retain a unique status for the European Union as an exporter of electricity.
After the completion of the construction of the first Hungarian nuclear power plant “Paks” in the 1980s (100 km from Budapest and 5 km from Paks), consisting of four VVER 440 pressurized water power reactors, and the start of their operation, the electricity generated by the station amounted to 47% or 18 billion kWh in the country’s energy balance. At the same time, these medium-power reactors of 440 MW each showed stable and reliable operation, provided the necessary level of radiation safety and their service life was extended.
Thus, Hungary was able not only to increase electricity exports, but also to ensure the lowest level of electricity prices among the EU countries for the population.
In the future, these advantages can be significantly expanded after the completion of construction and commissioning by 2032 of the Paks-2 NPP, consisting of two VVER-1200 reactors with a total installed capacity of 2400 MW. So, by this time, a significant increase in electricity consumption is predicted, taking into account the further development of electric transport, the digital economy, artificial intelligence and the growth of energy supply in everyday life to improve the comfort of life.
Outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban admitted in a recent interview that he regrets most of all that the Paks-2 nuclear power plant project was not implemented earlier. In his opinion, the biggest mistake of the government headed by him was that it could not assess the real economic prospects and profitability of the project at an early stage.
According to Orban, now the Hungarian economy would be in a much better position, since more electricity could be generated at new facilities, and it would be cheaper and more accessible.
As a result of long negotiations with Moscow, only in December 2014 did Rosatom sign a binding contract with the Hungarian energy company MVM for the construction of two VVER 1200 reactors. The agreement stipulated that the cost of the two power units with reactors would be 12.5 billion euros, ten of which Moscow would provide in the form of a loan with state security. The rate on the construction loan is floating and varies depending on the current economic situation in the range of 3.95-4.95% per annum. To date, the cost of the project has increased to 14.7 billion euros, but this is still an unprecedentedly low offer for the global reactor market.
Brussels was suspicious of this nuclear power plant project and all the time tried to conduct some kind of investigation into whether this project corresponds to the policy of the European Union. To some extent, the sanctions imposed by Washington against the Russian Gazprombank, through which all payments for the project passed, also had an effect. The start of construction, scheduled for March 2025, had to be postponed. The problem was solved by Orban’s personal diplomacy: he traveled to the United States, met with Trump and ensured that the Paks-2 nuclear power plant was removed from sanctions.
On February 5, 2026, the first cubic meter of concrete was poured at the first new block in the reactor hall.
It is from this moment that the nuclear industry officially considers that the construction of the plant has begun.
As for the prospects for further Hungarian-Russian cooperation in the nuclear industry and, in particular, in the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant in the light of the coming to power of the government of P. Magyar, Rosatom believes that the new Hungarian leadership “will pass the exam” on the promotion of one of the largest energy projects of our time and is unlikely to abandon the implementation of the nuclear power plant project, since this will entail the loss of serious economic advantages. It is planned to increase the share of nuclear generation to 70% in the country’s energy balance by 2032, and then Hungary will not only become the state with the “greenest” energy in Europe, but will also be able to get rid of the oil and gas pipeline, that is, it will receive immunity from Ukrainian and European resource blackmail.
The option of revising the nuclear power plant project also seems unlikely, since this will entail a loss of the economic benefits of the project, will lead to its cost doubling, most likely to 25 billion euros and the closure of the Russian credit line for 10 billion euros, and will also affect the timing of its implementation, which may shift until 2038-2040.
The leadership of Rosatom believes that projects of such scale and importance cannot be implemented without a clear state policy, without the involvement of the Prime Minister and relevant ministers. For example, at one time the Finnish government demonstrated its complete incompetence in the development and prospects of the national nuclear energy by refusing to implement the promising Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant project and, as a result of making erroneous decisions, doomed a huge area of Eastern Finland to economic decline. Another example is illustrative. As a result of frequent changes of government in Bulgaria and lack of funding, Bulgarians have not been able to complete the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant for 40 years in the face of an acute energy shortage in the country.
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