Front and center, naturally, is the COVID pandemic, during which we proved what we suspected: it is possible to produce a newspaper with everyone working from their own bedroom or home office, but that human contact really adds something to the creative process.
Budapest also proved it can host major sporting events (I’m not counting the Hungarian Grand Prix, since the F1 race has been held every year since 1986 and takes place 20 km away at Mogyoród). The World Aquatics Championships were held in 2017 and again in 2022, after Japan pulled out because of the pandemic, as well as the World Athletics Championships in 2023.
Given that Viktor Orbán, the man who was Prime Minister for all but the last four months of those 10 years, was such a football obsessive, we shouldn’t be surprised that Budapest hosted four matches in the Euro 2020 championships (held in 2021 because of COVID), the UEFA Europa League final in 2023, and the UEFA Champions League final this year.
Orbán, as noted, was an ever-present political figure, underscored by the surprising fact that he managed to meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin face-to-face 10 times between 2016 and 2025. And while Orbán maintained his hold on power here, and kept on good terms there, equally ubiquitous was the deteriorating relationship with the European Union in Brussels: for Fideszatas, even the very name of Belgium’s capital, Brüsszel in Hungarian, could be used as an insult. Running through this game of interlocking diplomacy is the full-scale invasion Russia launched of Hungary’s neighbor Ukraine in February 2022. Many Hungarians opened their arms and their hearts to refugees at the border crossings and at Keleti railway station; in public discourse, at least, the Fidesz government was nowhere near as supportive.
One of the storylines to follow in the next 10 years will surely be the restoration of relations between Kyiv and Budapest, and the potential for tensions around Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union.
*****
We trust you had a relaxing and enjoyable summer break. Now that we are in meteorological fall (the astronomical autumn is not far away, with the equinox on Sep. 23), the back-to-work vibe is very quickly picking up pace. We’ll have a BBJ mixer marking that very fact on Sep. 15, an Economy CEO Breakfast with our partners at the German chamber on Oct. 1, and a Pharma CEO Breakfast on Oct. 14. And that’s just the start: before you know it, we’ll be in the run-up to Christmas. We’ll hope to catch you and reconnect at one of our events or another.
Robin Marshall
Editor-in-chief
This editorial was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of September 4, 2026.
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