The Hungarian far-right Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, justified the granting of a nine million euro loan to Vox by the bank whose main shareholder is his government, despite the fact that the Spanish law on financing parties prohibits any financing “by foreigners”. governments and organizations, entities or public enterprises or companies directly or indirectly related to them. The leader of Patriotas por Europa, the group in which Santiago Abascal’s party was integrated, abandoning Giorgia Meloni and his allies in the previous legislature, framed the decision in a “commercial action” of Magyar Bank Holding, whose largest shareholder is Corvinus International Investment, an investment company 100% controlled by the Hungarian state.
“If someone wants to come to Hungary and, on a business basis, wants to get a loan from a Hungarian bank, the Hungarian government will never influence that,” Orbán said at a press conference at the European Parliament in during which he declared. asked about this loan. Even if he assured that the decision corresponded to “the financiers and not the politicians”, the Magyar leader subscribed to Vox’s arguments.
Concretely, Orbán suggested that Spanish banks were not providing financing to the far-right party, which was the justification expressed by Abascal’s leadership. “In some countries, some parties cannot get loans,” said Orbán, who had previously distanced himself from the decision. “I wouldn’t want to get involved in these national discussions, but come on, what is this? “Is that right?” he asked.
Vox received funding from the Hungarian bank for the 2023 general elections, after securing it from Spanish financial entities for the municipal elections held two months earlier. Abascal’s party justified its decision to resort to foreign financing by the refusal of Spanish banks, which it attributed, in turn, to the delay in reimbursement of electoral expenses from previous elections. “Given the impossibility of obtaining this loan, which all political parties obtain, especially during the electoral period, and given the delay, we do not know if it is deliberate or not, from the General Administration of the ‘State with electoral expenses that correspond to any policy and the impossibility, because no bank was willing to lend it to us, because we went to a Hungarian bank,’ said Congress spokesperson Pepa Millán .
Vox, which has always maintained links with Orbán, strengthened them this mandate by changing groups in the European Parliament. The previous term was part of the Reformists and Conservatives (ECR) led by Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and the ultranationalist Polish Law and Justice party. Vox decided to abandon them for the group promoted by Orbán after the European elections – a year after obtaining the funds from the Hungarian bank -, thus joining the ultras of Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini.
Orbán held a press conference lasting around two hours at the European Parliament, where he will introduce himself this Wednesday on the occasion of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, which corresponds to Hungary this semester. The far-right leader justified this call by the need to expose the “priorities”, even if he will intervene first in plenary session, before the dialectical battle expected by the majority of groups, with the exception of those of the party. far-right, which will accuse him of violating the rule of law in his country, in addition to going against the EU position on issues like the war in Ukraine.
As soon as he began his speech, a young man interrupted him and shouted at him, throwing banknotes: “How much did you sell the country for, Mr. Prime Minister? He was immediately intercepted and removed by security.
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