Vol. I · 2026 Budget Audit
A classical-liberal audit of Hungary's 2026 budget.
All 42 chapters of the central budget, line by line — every figure costed, classified, and open to challenge, with a Year-10 renewal programme that closes the deficit gap.
The 2026 central budget
Audited- Total expenditure
- 43 781 Mrd Ft
- Budget chapters analysed
- 42
- Year-1 saving identified
- 5 398 Mrd Ft
- Year-10 reform envelope
- 18 655 Mrd Ft
Flagship Report
Master Whitepaper · 2026
Hungary 2026: A Classical-Liberal Budget Audit
A line-by-line audit of all 42 chapters of Hungary's 2026 central budget, plus the Year-10 reform programme that closes the deficit and funds a Tax Reform Dividend on a labour-wedge-first, consumption-second, sectoral-surtax-last waterfall. Grounded in the classical-liberal tradition; published openly for critique and revision.
The Findings
Where the 2026 budget goes
Every line item classified against one declared standard — traced from the largest ministries to the verdict: keep, freeze, phase out, or cut.
5 398 Mrd Ft
identified Year-1 saving · 12.3% of expenditure
- Keep 7 317 Mrd Ft 17%
- Nominal Freeze 3 234 Mrd Ft 7%
- Phase-Out 30 477 Mrd Ft 70%
- Immediate Cut 2 699 Mrd Ft 6%
Our Approach
AI-powered. Principle-driven. Fully transparent.
01
Every line item, analysed
A multi-agent AI pipeline reads all 42 chapters of Hungary's 2026 budget — thousands of line items — and applies one consistent analytical framework at a scale and speed no human team could sustain.
02
Our tradition, declared
We work in the classical-liberal tradition — Austrian economics, public choice, ordoliberal rule-of-law thinking, the institutional economics of North and Coase. We declare the lens rather than hide it.
03
Open to correction
The method is documented in full. Not every figure is manually verified — we say so openly and welcome corrections. Rigorous challenge to our numbers is exactly what we hope to provoke.
Who we are
Our mission
The Free Society Institute is an independent Hungarian think-tank working in the classical-liberal tradition — Mises and Hayek on Austrian economics, Buchanan and Tullock on public choice, Röpke and Eucken on the ordoliberal rule of law, North and Coase on institutions.
Knowledge grows through error correction. We publish our reasoning openly, treat our own conclusions as claims to be tested, and cite every figure to source — whitepapers, chapter analyses, and intersection briefs, all open to challenge.
Our aim is to make legible the long-run costs of interventionism, the institutional conditions under which Hungary can grow both freer and more prosperous, and the real transition costs any serious reform requires.
Research
Latest publications
Hungary 2026: A Classical-Liberal Budget Audit
Master Whitepaper
A line-by-line audit of all 42 chapters of Hungary's 2026 central budget — and a Year-10 reform programme that closes the deficit and funds a Tax Reform Dividend.
Read publicationTisza Programme: Intersection with the Renewal Programme
Intersection Brief
A section-by-section assessment of the Tisza party programme against the renewal programme. Aligned, divergent, and opposed sections classified, with the prosperity-gap quantified where the two diverge.
Read publicationChapter I — National Assembly
The National Assembly chapter classifies 348 Mrd Ft of legislative, regulatory, and discretionary spending — protecting what is constitutionally indispensable while phasing out party-foundation grants and prestige capital programmes.
Read publicationSzabad Társadalom Intézet
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