Offices housing data servers used by former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party have been raided by prosecutors and investigators with Hungary’s tax authority.
According to Marianna Bodó, a Spokesperson for the Bács-Kiskun County chief prosecutor’s office, the raid is part of a probe into suspected embezzlement and other crimes.
The Spokesperson disclosed in an email that the raid was part of an investigation into the suspected misuse of grant money through Hungary’s National Cultural Fund while Orbán’s government was in office. The county lies south of the capital, Budapest.
Six current and former officials have been charged in connection with the misuse of some 17 billion forints ($53.5 million) through the fund. They have denied wrongdoing. The officials have been accused of distributing the money in an opaque manner to artists and performers linked to Fidesz. Some of them actively campaigned for the party leading up April’s national election.
Bodó noted that a regional criminal directorate of the National Tax and Customs Administration assisted in the raid, adding that no further information could be provided “in the interests of the investigation.”
Orbán and Fidesz governed Hungary for 16 years until their blowout election loss in April. While in office, they were routinely accused of overseeing unchecked corruption, seizing control of Hungary’s institutions and undermining democracy and the rule of law.
After taking office in May, Prime Minister Péter Magyar has taken action to dismantle what he calls Orbán’s “mafia” by removing numerous political appointees — including the President — and Heads of institutions viewed as having facilitated Orbán’s autocratic government.
Since ending Orban’s hardline 16-year-long rule, Magyar’s new pro-European conservative government has rushed to loosen the self-styled “illiberal” leader’s lingering grip on the central European country.
Magyar has also vowed to pursue figures who enabled corruption, which watchdogs believe became endemic under his predecessor, and recover public assets from those who “illegally acquired” them
Since their election defeat, Fidesz has accused Magyar and Tisza of “tyranny” in their steps to dismantle Orbán’s political and economic system. Tisza argues that it is using its overwhelming electoral mandate to fulfill campaign promises.
Separately, Hungary’s government announced an investigation yesterday into a large foreign investment by Chinese automaker BYD negotiated by a former Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó who last week resigned from Parliament to take an executive position at the company.
Szijjártó noted in the announcement made last Wednesday that he would take the job at the world’s top electric carmaker prompted accusations of a conflict of interest and criticism over his role in facilitating substantial government subsidies to the company while in office.
Magyar told lawmakers that Szijjártó, a close ally of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had helped BYD while he was in office “with hundreds of billions (of forints) in public money, diplomatic support and state infrastructure.” “We will examine all the decisions, negotiations and state commitments made by Péter Szijjártó that were related to the BYD Hungary investment,” Magyar said.
He added that the investigation would look into all subsidies, tax breaks, permits, environmental exemptions and publicly-funded investments given to large multinational firms during Orbán’s tenure.
“We will investigate who made these decisions, who prepared them, what professional warnings were ignored, and how much burden they left on Hungarian taxpayers, workers, local communities and the environment.”
Péter Magyar
Neither Szijjártó nor BYD have responded to Magyar’s allegations of conflict of interest while Szijjártó was in office. The former Foreign Minister has posed his new job as a “prestigious” opportunity to work for one the “greatest success stories” in the automotive industry.
Fidesz Criticises Raid
Fidesz accused the governing Tisza party, led by pro-European Prime Minister Péter Magyar, of seeking to use legal means to destroy its offices housing data servers.
Fidesz said in a statement on Facebook that investigators had launched the raid “without prior notice” and “with the intention of seizing the party’s entire communications system and databases.” “There has been no precedent for this in Hungary since the end of Communism in 1990!” Fidesz asserted.
Meanwhile, Magyar noted on Facebook on that he was awaiting further information on the raid from prosecutors.
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