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Hungarian Opinion: City Hall Gate Controversy Continues

• 9 Dec 2021 7:33 AM
• BudaPost

A pro-government columnist interprets a leaked recording as proof that the opposition is serving foreign interests, and would sell off and plunder the country if they win the 2022 April election.

In a new recording related to the Budapest Council’s alleged plan to sell the City Hall buildings leaked by an anonymous informant, Gyula Gansperger, a well-known businessman surmises that the Hungarian opposition is financed by foreign groups and individuals who want to gain influence in Hungary.

As an example of such groups, Gansperger mentions the ‘Soros empire’, and former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai as their agent, adding that the same groups finance left-wing and liberal media outlets as well as intellectuals.

Gansperger served as leader of the State Privatization and Asset Management Agency under the first Orbán government in 1998. From 2006, he worked as a government commissioner under the Socialist-Liberal government and was also a business partner of former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, and also had, according to left-wing media outlets, business ties to entrepreneurs allied to Fidesz.

In response to the allegations, Budapest Mayor Karácsony in a Facebook post accused Fidesz of using ‘Russian style propaganda methods’ and the government of using the secret services to spy on the Budapest City Council. Mayor Karácsony also wrote that the offer to buy City Hall building came from entrepreneurs close to Fidesz.

Magyar Nemzet’s Tamás Pilhál finds the leaked recording more outrageous than former PM Gyurcsány’s 2006 Őszöd speech. The fiercely pro-government commentator takes Gansperger’s allegations as incontrovertible proof that the opposition serves foreign interests.

Pilhál goes so far as to call them ‘mercenaries’ who, once they get back into power, would do whatever their foreign funders demand -even if this amounts to treason. If they win the 2022 April election, ‘they will sell out and plunder Hungary, and make it a rainbow-coloured multicultural protectorate,’ Pilhál thunders.

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Launched in May 2011 to provide a balanced picture of matters covered in Hungary’s national press. Their aim is to make it easier for English-speakers to understand where this country is now and where it’s heading according to the full spectrum of media opinions.

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