Petrol stations in Hungary were sites of chaos this week as foreign vehicle owners rushed to buy fuel before the country raises prices for foreigners, with some even being turned away.
Hungarian petrol prices are much cheaper than in many neighbouring countries, such as Austria and Slovakia, due to the national conservative government’s policies aimed at keeping costs for citizens down — but foreigners will no longer be able to pop across the border to take advantage of this as Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed to charge foreign motorists more for fuel.
Orban has vowed to stop “fuel tourism” by not allowing foreign vehicles to benefit from his government’s move to keep the price down for Hungarians, Kronen Zeitung reports, on grounds that this could lead to disruptive queues and shortages for his people.
An information notice is seen at a petrol station in Budapest, Hungary on May 27th, 2022 stating the Hungarian government’s ruling that Hungarian cars may buy fuel at government-capped prices, while cars with foreign number plates will have to pay market prices from today as Hungarian fuel prices are the lowest in Europe, fuel tourism around the border has grown. (Photo: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images)
In Hunmgary, petrol is not to exceed 480 forints, or about 1.24 euros/1 pound/1.30 dollars per litre — far below the current price in Austria, where a litre of petrol costs between 12.8 and two euros.
Hungarian petrol stations near the Austrian border in the city of Sopron and elsewhere were scenes of chaos earlier this week as many tried to fill up their vehicles before the new rules came into effect.
Austrian motorist Ramona M. claimed that one petrol station had run out of both gasoline and diesel earlier this week when she attempted to fill up her vehicle, and other stations had also come to standstill due to the high volume of traffic.
She claimed to have returned on Friday, after the new rules took effect, and stated that a Hungarian petrol station worker tapped on her car window and stated in broken German: “Austrians don’t refuel anymore, back to Austria!”
While the Hungarian government has stated the price cap will only be in place until July, some have criticised the policy, with reports claiming as many as 200 petrol stations have had to close due to the difference between the market price and the official price they are allowed to sell petrol for.
Hungary is not the only country to put price caps on petrol or try and reduce its cost in recent months, as both Spain and Italy have made similar measures in order to help ease the burden of surging fuel prices and inflation that is linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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