Fidesz has accused Péter Magyar and the Tisza government of working with political forces in Brussels to drive Hungarian companies out of the country’s construction and transport sectors and replace them with foreign businesses. The opposition party’s parliamentary group issued the statement to the Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday in response to the government’s decision to suspend the Southern Railway Ring project in Budapest and exclude V-Híd, a company linked to businessman Lőrinc Mészáros, from ongoing railway construction works.
Fidesz: ‘This is how they repay campaign support’
“This is how Péter Magyar and Tisza repay their campaign support. This is what is happening with the Southern Railway Ring, and this is what will happen with every major investment,” the statement read.
According to Fidesz, the government is seeking to use allegations of irregularities as a pretext to exclude companies that represent the independence of the Hungarian economy from domestic investment projects, while working with the Brussels bureaucracy.
The party added that the aim was to hand over the implementation of major projects to foreign economic interests. It claimed that the same process was taking place in motorway construction and in what it described as the most significant railway development in Budapest in the past century.
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Fidesz insists Budapest’s Southern Railway Ring must be built
Fidesz acknowledged that construction of the Southern Railway Ring had already required considerable patience from people living near the works. The party warned that it was now uncertain whether the project would go ahead at all and, if it did, how many years it might be delayed.
Fidesz stressed that, in its view, the Southern Railway Ring was necessary regardless of whether it received EU support.
The party also criticised Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy, arguing that he was well acquainted with the details of the public procurement procedure.
Vitézy was a member of the supervisory board of the National Infrastructure Development Company (NIF Zrt.), which launched the tender, in 2021. According to Fidesz, the supervisory board approved the procurement procedure.
“It was not suspicious then, and it was not unlawful then. Now, when the project needs to be outsourced abroad, it has suddenly become so,” the statement said. Fidesz concluded by claiming that Hungary’s “recolonisation” was gathering pace and that Vitézy bore personal responsibility for it.
Read more about the topic: Hungary to terminate Southern Railway Ring contract with Mészáros firm to avoid risking billions in EU funding
