Jobbik: Both Socialists, Fidesz ‘up to their necks’ in metro scandal

Budapest, February 10 (MTI) – The Socialists, now in opposition, “divided the loot” with the now-ruling Fidesz party in the metro four construction scheme, the opposition Jobbik party said on Friday. “Both are up to their necks,” said Jobbik.

Jobbik lawmaker György Szilágyi told a press conference that both parties connived to steal nearly half of the funding for the metro line’s construction.

The Socialists and Fidesz have also conspired to work out a way to ensure a cover-up so that Hungarian investigators fail to uncover the real state of affairs, the Jobbik lawmaker claimed.

Referring to the procurement of French Alstom trains, Szilágyi insisted the corruption case had links that reached as high as the prime minister.

Marcell Tokody, a Jobbik lawmaker in the Budapest assembly, said if the European Commission demanded repayment of 59 billion forints, as recommended in a report of the European anti-fraud office OLAF, then all Hungarians taxpayers would be forced pay because it was unlikely that the people responsible would be identified or their assets seized.

The Budapest city council submitted a complaint concerning the metro four construction scheme back in 2011, he said. Still, the irregularities were revealed only by the British anti-fraud office and OLAF, he added.

Source: MTI