In 2013, Viktor Orb\u00e1n implemented a plan that struck many observers as curious: The Hungarian premier banned sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products at private stores, limiting them to state-licensed outlets. These quickly opened in almost every neighborhood and village in the country of 9 million people\u2014some 5,000 locations in all\u2014hidden behind blacked-out windows and emblazoned with a distinctive brown logo declaring \u201cNational Tobacco Shop\u201d in a bold, art-deco font. Orb\u00e1n had pitched the idea as an antismoking measure, barring entry to anyone under 18 and prohibiting virtually all ads. And, Orb\u00e1n insisted, the move would channel profits away from \u201clarge multinational companies\u201d and into Hungarian pockets.<\/p>\n
It soon became clear that Orb\u00e1n had other motives. Even as the sales ban drove hundreds of mom-and-pop stores into bankruptcy, licenses for the state-approved shops seemed to be going primarily to people with connections to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party. The brother of a minister\u2019s bodyguard was awarded several concessions; a Fidesz mayor\u2019s 19-year-old son won three; in another village, the mayor\u2019s wife got two. There was no corruption, Orb\u00e1n told state radio at the time, since some \u201cleft-wing\u201d bidders had also won. Still, he added, \u201cWhy should we turn our back on our supporters?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2013, Viktor Orb\u00e1n implemented a plan that struck many observers as curious: The Hungarian premier banned sales…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16416],"tags":[9631,9340,5268,1860,383,422,3639,1072,11031,934,6001,5309],"class_list":["post-63558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-peter-magyar","tag-bulgaria","tag-businessweek","tag-construction","tag-economic-growth","tag-government","tag-hungary","tag-law","tag-media","tag-money-laundering","tag-peter-magyar","tag-radio","tag-regulation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116543760860137084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63558","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=63558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}