European citizens are currently paying a “sanctions surcharge” for energy, which makes the future unstable, he told public radio. “The question is whether we will make the situation even worse, given that in Brussels they want to introduce more and more sanctions,” he said. The war in Ukraine is dragging on, with no hope of a swift ending, Orbán said. Meanwhile, large shareholders of energy companies, “starting with [financier] George Soros, are raking in billions in extra profits” thanks to sanctions-related energy price rises, he said. Energy prices were driven by politically motivated decisions in Brussels rather than economic reasons, he said. Without the sanctions, energy prices would be the same as they were in April, when the price of gas and oil was expected to stabilise around 100 dollars, “which would have been manageable” without altering the government’s price-cap scheme. He said the government is protecting families and businesses through energy price caps, and households would pay on average 181,000 forints (EUR 432) more each month without them.