The British newspaper The Guardian reports that since Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s election defeat to Peter Magyar — a loss expected to end his 16 years in power next month — wealthy figures close to him have begun moving assets out of the country.
According to the report, private jets carrying the spoils of those whose fortunes grew over the past decade and a half under Orban’s rule are constantly departing from Vienna. Others are rushing to invest their assets abroad, while senior figures considered close to the outgoing prime minister are exploring options to obtain U.S. visas, hoping to find work at institutions linked to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
The newspaper writes that since Orban came to power in 2010, a small circle of loyalists to him and his Fidesz party amassed vast wealth, in part due to their expanding control over the country’s economy and public infrastructure contracts. Since the election defeat, The Guardian says it has learned of three members of this inner circle who have begun transferring assets abroad, including to Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Singapore. The report is based on two sources within Orban’s Fidesz party.
The report of the “flight” of money follows accusations by Prime Minister-elect Magyar that Fidesz-linked figures are racing to shield their wealth from potential scrutiny by his future government. “Oligarchs close to Orban are transferring tens of billions of forints to the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Uruguay and other distant countries,” Magyar wrote on social media over the weekend.
He called on the attorney general, the police chief and the head of the tax authority “to stop the criminals” and “not allow them to flee” to countries unlikely to extradite them later.
Magyar said those expected to leave Hungary include the family of Lorinc Meszaros, one of Orban’s closest associates, whose rise from gas fitter to Hungary’s richest man was made possible in large part through winning public procurement contracts. “I have also been informed that several oligarch families have already left the country,” Magyar said over the weekend. “According to reports, some influential oligarch families have already withdrawn their children from schools and are arranging trusted security personnel for their departure.”
The Guardian noted that independent journalists in Hungary were the first to report on the rush by Orban’s associates to move capital abroad in an effort to protect their money before Magyar’s government could act to freeze, seize or nationalize it.
Orban, a close ally of Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an admired figure on the global far right, is expected to vacate the prime minister’s office early next month. Over the weekend, he announced he would give up the parliamentary seat he won in the upcoming legislature, ending a 36-year tenure in Hungary’s parliament.
He said his decision reflects that he is now needed not in parliament but in reorganizing what he called the “patriotic movement” — referring to the outgoing ruling party and its supporters. Gergely Gulyas, who has served as the minister in charge of the prime minister’s office, will lead the Fidesz faction in parliament.