Ákos Hadházy jumped out of his car and into a thicket that had just lost its first leaves in early fall. “I thought the site was finished, but obviously there are still people at work,” said the Hungarian MP, pointing to stepladders through the fence that encircles the Hatvanpuszta estate. “I call it Puszta-Versailles,” said this indefatigable anti-corruption campaigner and independent opposition politician, who regularly comes in a suit and tie to check on the progress of Hungary’s most astonishing construction site.
In this pretty corner of rolling countryside some 30 kilometers west of Budapest, Győző Orbán, father of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is about to finish erecting a huge, luxurious palace surrounded by magnificent parkland. A pastiche of Habsburg-era architecture, recalling the site as a former agricultural estate founded by an Austrian aristocrat in the days of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, it offers, if the details of the building permit are to be believed, every modern comfort: two swimming pools, a vast underground garage, solar panels, a staff building and even a tank holding over 20,000 liters of fuel oil to last in the event of a general power failure.
“There’s also a whole wing that’s a big kitchen with freezers in the basement,” said the 50-year-old MP, who makes this construction site the symbol of the spectacular yet dubious enrichment of Viktor Orbán’s entourage. Since the government banned drone flights over private property, Hadházy has been forced to fly a plane to follow the project’s progress. The last aerial images, taken in September, showed pools already filled, he said, suggesting that the occupants had moved in after years of work. As yet, no one has seen the prime minister on site, nor his 83-year-old father.
Suspicions of fraud in public procurement
When asked about this palace, acquired in 2011 by the patriarch, the head of government usually replies that he “doesn’t interfere” in his father’s affairs. Yet such luxury would never have been possible if Viktor Orbán hadn’t ostensibly favored those closest to him in the 14 years he’s been in power. The owner of a highly profitable stone quarry, Győző Orbán supplies numerous public works sites, often as part of tenders financed by European funds and won by the construction companies of Viktor Orbán’s childhood friend, Lőrinc Mészáros, who is now the country’s leading fortune.
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Publish date : 2024-10-31 18:09:00
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