Vox management’s acceptance that the party financed its 2023 municipal and general election campaign with loans from a Hungarian bank, Magyar Bankholding (MBH) – a financial entity formed from the merger of three other banks – showed the close ties between the Prime Minister of this country, Viktor Orbán, and Santiago Abascal. One of MBH’s main shareholders is tycoon Lörinc Mészáros, a childhood friend of the Hungarian president who also previously financed the campaign of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French National Rally.
Orbán and Abascal profess mutual admiration and have taken advantage of the numerous meetings in which they have met in recent years to proclaim their friendship. Their relations were strengthened after the European elections, after Vox’s sudden decision to leave the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – to which he had already joined. vice-presidency – to form the new group Patriots for Europe, promoted by Orbán, which was also joined by the National Group of Marine Le Pen, the League of the Italian Mateo Salvini, the Portuguese far right Chega and the FPÖ, Austrian. The Freedom Party – which won the elections in this country last Sunday –, among others, has become the third force in terms of number of deputies (84) in the European Parliament.
The decision to create a new group in Brussels highlighted and endorsed the tensions that exist within the “patriotic family” of the European far right, which Abascal and his friend Orbán have tried to unify to strengthen their ideas and extend them to the entire continent. although without success. In any case, Abascal’s change of camp aroused a certain surprise since the Hungarian Prime Minister has never hidden his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Vox has always denigrated until now.
Last July, Orbán began his rotating presidency of the EU Council with a trip to kyiv during which he asked Zelensky to consider a ceasefire to “accelerate” peace. His gesture generated great unease in Brussels and the capitals. But this has not tarnished the friendship between Abascal and Orbán, who enjoys excellent health.
In April, the Vox leader traveled to Budapest to attend CPAC, one of the conservative political summits that Abascal usually doesn’t miss. He praised Hungary, defining it as “the Gallic village of Asterix and Obelix” and presenting it as “an example and a paradigm” for all other EU countries, while attacking socialism. and “communism” for “lying, stealing, betraying the people”. , trample laws and persecute freedoms. There he also boasted about his relationship with Orbán. “It’s a friendship that [Pedro Sánchez] He reproaches me whenever he can, which fills me with pride,” he stressed.
Shortly after, Abascal met him again in the Hungarian capital during a tour he made to seek support from his European counterparts against immigration, a narrative they all share. The leader of Vox expressed his “concern about the migratory invasion in Ceuta” and warned about it on his X account.
The ties between the two political leaders go back a long way. Indeed, the Hungarian was one of Vox’s main guests during the central or closing events of the campaign, whether in person or via video conference. Orbán also did not miss the great patriotic celebration organized by Vox in Vistalegre (Madrid), “Viva24 Europe”in which the main star was the Argentine president, Javier Milei, who accused Begoña Gómez of being “corrupt”, triggering a diplomatic crisis with that country. France’s Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, and Orbán were two of the most famous speakers, while Italian President Giorgia Meloni chose to speak via videoconference.
After learning of the millionaire “credit” from the Hungarian bank NBH to Vox to finance their campaigns, many made the connection and understood Abascal’s unexpected departure from ECR and his move to Patriotas por Europa. This entity’s main shareholder is Corvinus International Investment, an investment company 100% controlled by the Magyar state chaired by Orbán. It is also one of the companies behind the public takeover bid (OPA) launched by Magyar Vagon for the railway manufacturer Talgo, which the Spanish government vetoed for reasons of “national security”. Pedro Sánchez’s executive relied on information from the CNI which would confirm the link with Russia of an offer which, according to the main shareholders of the railway manufacturer, guaranteed his “Hispanicness” and his employment.
However, government information indicates that behind the Hungarian operation in Spain was businessman András Tombor, defense advisor to the first Orbán government between 1998 and 2002. Tombor did not deny these connections with the Russia since it presented the takeover offer. But he assured that they had been cut almost entirely after the invasion of Ukraine and had only been maintained to complete certain deliveries. The day before the public purchase offer was made official, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, had already announced that he would do “everything possible” to make it fail.
After discovering this flow of millions to help Vox in its campaigns by the Hungarian bank, the management of the far-right party, without being able to deny it, justified itself by emphasizing that it was forced to seek financing from foreign entities because the Spanish reject them.
Vox’s parliamentary spokesperson, Pepa Millán, supported this theory on Tuesday. But, as he clarified, the Hungarian money was a “credit” and not a “contribution”, which his party interprets as prohibited by the law on party financing, which is why he declared that he saw no illegality in it. Furthermore, he clarified that “it is not a question of 9 million, but of 6.5 million” as “this appears reflected” in “the information that Vox published on its website” and that “the Court accounts also have ”.
Millán added that this credit “has already been returned with interest” by his party, while regretting that no Spanish bank has agreed to negotiate with them “so that Vox can face the 2023 general elections”. “What we ask ourselves is why they don’t want to finance Vox, which is the third political force in Spain,” he said. According to him, these Spanish banks “will have to explain to their shareholders” why they lend “15 or 20 million to the PP and the PSOE” and not to Vox. “We would like this money and its interests to remain in Spain,” he concluded.
Millán’s statements, which coincide with the explanations given by other Vox leaders on the same subject, do not correspond to the truth since the accounts that Vox published on its website relating to 2023 do not reveal the origin of this money, as required by law. Furthermore, these “credits” are not 6.5 million, but rather a total of 9.2 million. The party’s national spokesperson, José Antonio Fúster, came forward last week to emphasize that the origin of this money “is known to those who must know it”, in reference to the control court. National headquarters did not respond to questions for this editorial.
It should be remembered that Vox was sanctioned a few weeks ago by the Court of Auditors for illegal financing with a fine of 233,000 euros.
