Nationalist Orban is close to Russia’s Vladimir Putin as well as US President Donald Trump, who has endorsed him – Copyright KCNA VIA KNS\/AFP\/File STR<\/p>\n
Hungarian leader Viktor Orban\u2019s officially declared wealth is fairly modest: some savings and a jointly owned villa in Budapest.<\/p>\n
But voters in what Transparency International deems the EU\u2019s most corrupt country believe otherwise.<\/p>\n
And they may make Orban pay in a general election on April 12 that could spell an end to his 16-year rule.<\/p>\n
The wealth amassed by Orban\u2019s inner circle is fuelling the increasingly palpable frustration of a population grappling with sluggish growth, high inflation and worsening public services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s communication machine worked well as long as our economic situation remained relatively good,\u201d Zoltan Ranschburg, a political analyst at the Republikon think tank, told AFP.<\/p>\n
But it has not been good for years, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our money, not theirs. But they are spending it as if they were the sole owners,\u201d Gabor Szebenyi, an 81\u2011year\u2011old retired history teacher told AFP at an opposition rally.<\/p>\n
He denounced what he called \u201cfeudalism\u201d that has taken root in the Central European country of nearly 10 million people.<\/p>\n
Independent lawmaker Akos Hadhazy, one of Hungary\u2019s leading anti\u2011corruption crusaders, said graft has drained the equivalent of 2.84 billion euros ($3.27 billion) from state coffers every year since 2016.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018The frontman\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not isolated cases \u2014 this is simply the way the system is functioning,\u201d Hadhazy told AFP.<\/p>\n
While Orban claims to live modestly, several members of his family have grown spectacularly rich since his return to power in 2010.<\/p>\n
His father Gyozo Orban, who is 85, owns several building material companies as well as the historic Hatvanpuszta estate he had rebuilt into a luxurious manor worth hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Protected by high walls, the sprawling domain close to the premier\u2019s home village has two swimming pools and its own wildlife park, as well as extensive outbuildings, according to drone footage published by independent media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn reality, the father is merely Viktor Orban\u2019s frontman,\u201d Hadhazy said.<\/p>\n
Orban\u2019s son-in-law Istvan Tiborcz has become one of Hungary\u2019s most influential entrepreneurs through public lighting contracts won by his former company Elios. The deals were partly financed by the EU \u2014 until the EU anti-fraud office OLAF found serious irregularities.<\/p>\n
Tiborcz has since switched to real estate and tourism.<\/p>\n
Orban\u2019s childhood friend Lorinc Meszaros, a former plumber, has become Hungary\u2019s wealthiest man worth $4.8 billion according to Forbes magazine, with an empire of construction, energy, banking and media firms thriving on public contracts.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Frozen EU funds \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cOn paper there is competition (for public contracts), but in fact the winner is always known in advance,\u201d a construction contractor told AFP on condition of anonymity at a site near Budapest.<\/p>\n
Working in the sector for three decades, the man said public tenders are often decided in advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose at the bottom of the chain do the work and get paid last \u2014 sometimes months later,\u201d he said, adding he was ready to throw in the towel and sell his machinery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so angry,\u201d he said, adding that while those in power lead \u201cluxurious lives\u201d and travel by private jets, small businesses \u201care struggling to survive\u201d.<\/p>\n
The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International has labelled Hungary as the EU\u2019s most corrupt country alongside Bulgaria in its Corruption Perceptions Index.<\/p>\n
It highlighted systemic risks in public procurement and limited competition for the largest contracts which make up five percent of Hungary\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n
The government rejected the ranking and insists Hungarian procurement rules comply with EU standards.<\/p>\n
But the EU has frozen 19 billion euros ($22 billion) in funds destined for Hungary over persistent concerns about corruption and respect for the rule of law.<\/p>\n
Opposition leader Peter Magyar, Orban\u2019s top rival in the upcoming vote, has pledged to recover the funds if elected and to investigate how the current leaders and their families have grown so rich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nationalist Orban is close to Russia’s Vladimir Putin as well as US President Donald Trump, who has endorsed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[489,883,416,383,8924,422,328],"class_list":{"0":"post-12017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vladimir-putin","8":"tag-corruption","9":"tag-election","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-government","12":"tag-hide","13":"tag-hungary","14":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116355909770976112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}