Orbán: Hungary safe, despite ‘serious’ situation

The Danube is expected to recede slowly, he said, adding that no rain was in the forecast for the Austrian section of the river over the next seven days. The Danube is expected to peak on Thursday in the Dunaremete region, at Mosonmagyarovar, in north-western Hungary, Orbán added.

The Leitha river is expected to peak at Mosonmagyarovar on Thursday morning at a record water level, Orbán said. The peak of the flood has moved 45-55km in about 24 hours, he added.

Besides protection against the highest water levels, Hungary will also have to prepare to counter damages caused by a slow ebb of the flood, Orbán said. Opening the emergency reserves on the Leitha has resulted in a drop in water levels, and there will hopefully be no need for further emergency reserves, he said.

The stretch of areas put under flood defence operations has been extended by 70 kilometres, 37km of which is under extraordinary alert, the prime minister said.

The flood is expected to peak in Budapest on Saturday night, and the brunt of the wave will leave Hungary by the middle of next week, Orbán said.

The river’s Budapest embankments could be open to traffic around the middle of next week, he said.

The number of professionals working in flood prevention in Budapest was raised to 5,828, along with 4,012 volunteers. The number of registered volunteers is 15,353, Orbán said. Further, 200 water management professionals and 200 soldiers have also been deployed, along with 130 policemen, he said. The number of prison inmates working on flood prevention has been raised to 200, he said. Fully 152 auxiliary policemen, 151 people working in government fostered work programmes, and 171 firefighter volunteers are also working on the dams, he said.

“Hungary has learned flood protection during the previous floods, and professionals and volunteers know exactly what to do,” Orbán said.

Volunteers have filled and placed 130,000 sandbags on the dams, he said.

Barring unexpected events, the flood will leave Hungary with the Danube confined and kept between its barriers, Orbán said.

The quality of the protection work “is cause for optimism”, Orbán said, and thanked soldiers, policemen and “thousands of volunteers for the enormous work” the day before.

Defence lines have been raised to 9m on the full length of the protection area in Budapest, above the highest ever flood levels in the city, Orbán said. The weakest points, Margaret Island in the city centre and the neighbourhood of Batthyany Square on the Buda side, have also been fortified successfully, he said.

Meanwhile, defence lines have been finished north of the capital in Dunabogdany and Tahitotfalu, and almost done at Leanyfalu, Orbán said.

Sections of Road 2, leading north from Budapest along the Danube, will probably have to be closed on Friday, Orbán said. Kismaros, north of Budapest, was in a critical situation on Wednesday, but protection levels were on 100 percent there too, thanks to a deployment of the Armed Forces, he added.

The government has also launched a free phone line for people to report flood-related matters and to apply as volunteers, he said. He also praised the work of volunteers at Nagymaros, north of Budapest, where they successfully covered flood preparations on a long stretch of the river bank.

Asked about EU assistance, the prime minister said that Hungary had activated the relevant mechanisms and Brussels had started to looking into possible ways to help.

He said there was no time to wait for such assistance, adding that the task now was “to finish the job and earmark in advance the funds to cover flood defence expenses”. “And once the complicated procedures are concluded by Brussels and Hungary is not getting punished by not getting the help the country is due — because that is always a question in Brussels — then we will receive assistance.”

Asked about flood defence expenses, Orbán said no extra spending was planned, noting that the annual budget always contains allocations for unexpected situations.

“Therefore, there is no financial ceiling for flood defences, because the necessary resources are available for immediate payment,” he said. Private companies employed by local authorities to help the defence efforts would also be paid through the usual channels, he said.

Asked about compensation payment for damage caused by the flood, he said its amount was to be assessed afterwards. The emergency reservoirs by the Leitha are privately owned farmlands, and the damage may include lost crops and damage to irrigation and other equipment, he said.

Concerning wages in the water management sector, Orbán said those were extremely low compared with the tasks performed and pledged to regulate their wages in 2025 or 2026, over a period of 1-3 years.

Answering a question, he noted that since the great flood in 2013, the country’s flood defence system had been significantly improved with 150 billion forints (EUR 380.4m) worth of development projects completed.

Calling each flood “a load test”, the prime minister said those always revealed missing components, noting that a mobile dam was most likely needed to be built at Kismaros in the Danube Bend.