Wanting to get only a small share of the billions of euros delivered to his country by the European Union, the mayor of eastern Hungary has asked for money to construct a “treetop walkway” that may offer panoramic views of the forest outside his village.
Hungarian officials answerable for the distribution of European money liked the thought and in 2021 approved a grant price roughly PLN 175,000. dollars. An elevated walkway within the village of Nyirmartonfalva, near the border with Romania, now stretches almost 100 meters past a wood commentary tower.
There is simply one problem: the mayor, a supporter of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, who owns the land on which the treetop walkway was built last 12 months, cut down all of the trees and sold them for wood before construction began. So the walkway within the treetops opens onto an area of empty land.
The project is here one in all tens of 1000’s undertaken in Hungary under European Union-funded programs to help narrow the economic gap between the bloc’s wealthier, original members within the west and latest members, particularly those within the east.
But at the same time as he railed against Brussels over what he sees as meddling in Hungary’s internal affairs, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been lavishly using EU funds to funnel money and other advantages to his political allies.
Warned by a tourist who got here across a looming wood structure trapped on a patch of empty land last 12 months, Akos Hadhazy, an opposition lawmaker, aided by news outlets critical of the federal government, turned the sidewalk into known cause.
“The whole system here is based on Fidesz giving financial favors to its supporters,” Hadhazy said in Budapest, citing the Nyirmartonfalva pavement as a major example.
The executive body of the European Union, alarmed by the confusion, asked the Hungarian government for explanations. In response, Zsolt Papp, the Hungarian official answerable for spending European funds on rural development, sent a letter in August saying that the federal government had checked out the treetop walkway and concluded that it “does not fully meet” the conditions of the grant application (taking (taking into consideration that there have been no trees left) and the financing was cancelled.
“The goal of the project will not be achieved in the foreseeable future,” the letter explained.
The EU anti-fraud office in Brussels said it was conducting an “investigation” into the project. It is unclear who ultimately paid for the sidewalk.
There were few visitors on a recent trip to Nyirmartonfalva, just a number of children from the village on a faculty trip.
“We call it our Bridge of Sighs,” said Attila Rozsa, a Fidesz voter and resident of Nyirmartonfalva. “Every time you see it, you sigh at how much it cost.”
This was reported by a journalist from the investigative portal Atlatszo tongue-in-cheek video analyzing the pavement as an avant-garde murals. Its title: “Corrupt Mayor or Misunderstood Genius?”
Abroad, Orban is respected by many right-wing Europeans and former US President Donald J. Trump for his fulminations against “woke movement and gender ideology” and vowing to defend national sovereignty against the dictates of the European Union.
However, in his own country, the glue cementing his support, according to independent political analysts and his enemies, is money, which is the premise of a network of interconnected state institutions and personal enterprises, run mainly by allies of Orbán’s party, Fidesz.
Transparency International, an anti-bribery organization, in January he named Hungary essentially the most corrupt EU country.
In a speech Thursday, U.S. Ambassador David Pressman said of Hungary: “All aspects of government power – from public procurement, to licensing, to tourism subsidies, to concessions, to tax and auditing activities, to regulatory policy – ensure favorable treatment for companies owned by party leaders or their families, in-laws or old friends.”
Encouraged by investigative journalSaint’s reportsmany Hungarians have been complaining for years in regards to the wealth of individuals like Lorinc Meszarosonce an unemployed pipe fitter from Orban’s home village, today one in all the richest people within the country.
But last month, what Fidesz had long dismissed as politically motivated rumor mongering was believed by someone deep within the system – Peter Magyar, a former senior executive at state-owned companies and the ex-husband of a close Orban ally.
Mr. Hungary he told Partizan, independent news service that “half of the country is owned by a number of families.”
IN post on Facebook, Magyar directed fire at Orbán’s businessman’s son-in-law, Istvan Tiborcz. “What’s your secret?” – Mr. Magyar asked. “At 37 you have 100 billion, lots of hotels, banks, fund managers, lots of it former valuable state properties” (The figure he mentioned is the forint, the Hungarian currency, which will be around $280 million).
Mr. Magyar then asked: “How much money have you received in the form of loans or government grants to build your portfolio?”
We were unable to obtain a comment from Mr. Tiborcz. In response to questions from Magyar Hang, to an independent conservative weekly about his father-in-law’s role in his success and whether he received government grants or loans, Tiborcz stated that he “does not want to participate in political battles.”
On Friday, Magyar gathered 1000’s of individuals at an anti-Fidesz rally in Budapest and announced that he was creating the Stand Up, Hungarians! movement to oppose the “corruption and nepotism” of Orban’s party.
The enormous wealth of several Fidesz-linked tycoons in Budapest is just essentially the most visible aspect of the loyalty rewards program, which extends beyond the capital to cities and distant villages comparable to Nyirmartonfalva.
The approved application for funding for the “treetop walkway” was submitted by Mayor Filemon Maholy, a businessman who ran on behalf of Fidesz within the last local elections in 2019, defeating the incumbent socialist.
In addition to the walkway, Mr Maholy has managed to secure EU funding for plenty of projects. Interestingly, given the best way he cut down trees near this structure, he also secured a $126,000 grant for a tree planting program.
He previously received $130,000 for a project to support tourism by constructing a guesthouse that was built next to his sprawling home on the outskirts of the village. There were no guests or staff within the guesthouse on the last day.
The flow of European money into Hungary has slowed lately due to Orban’s disputes with Brussels over the rule of law, minority rights and other issues. According to the German research group Center for European Policy, Hungary was the third-largest net recipient of cash from Brussels before the conflict.
The money has helped transform previously neglected areas comparable to Nyirmartonfalva, which residents say is now a greater place to live than before Orban got here to power.
The exterior wall of City Hall is plastered with plaques showing how funds from Brussels financed solar panels, sewage pipes, roadworks and other improvements. The local kindergarten also received money.
However, nobody celebrates a treeless walkway within the treetops.
Zoltan Palfi, a Swedish-Hungarian living within the village, said he was horrified when he first saw it. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. “I thought maybe this was where Elon Musk’s spacecraft landed.”
Mayor Maholy is just not amused by such ridicule.
Petra Magyar, one other resident of the realm, said Mr. Maholy threatened to take away her job as a social employee on the village payroll after she put a smiley face on a Facebook post wherein she gently mocked his sidewalk.
Mrs. Magyar kept her job, but found one other one in a close-by village.
“It was a beautiful place before he cut down all the trees,” she said. “Now we have a long bridge in the middle of nowhere.”
When Hadhazy’s legislator first raised the problem of misuse of EU money last 12 months, Maholy initially opposed it, claiming in an interview with a Hungarian TV station that there was “never a requirement” for the treetop walkway to be trees.
Lately, nonetheless, Mr. Maholy has been depressed. When a Los Angeles Times reporter visited City Hall, the mayor’s assistant said an interview wouldn’t be possible since the mayor was away on business. Just a few moments later, Mr. Maholy arrived in his automobile and ran to his office.
Later that day, spotting reporters at an abandoned guesthouse, the mayor stormed out of his neighboring house, shaking with rage and shouting about Budapest’s Chain Bridge, an iconic structure whose recent costly renovation by the capital’s opposition-controlled government has caused sparked accusations of corruption from Fidesz.
“Look for the money there, not here,” the mayor shouted.
