Hungarian opposition to file lawsuit demanding Russian gas contract details
The opposition Democratic Coalition will file a lawsuit with a view to revealing precisely how much Hungary “pays Russia for Europe’s most expensive gas”, the party’s deputy leader and MEP said on Tuesday.
Csaba Molnár, MEP from the Democratic Coalition told an online press conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “cheated” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán when he told a joint press conference in Moscow that Hungarians were getting Russian gas for one-fifth of the market price. Molnar added that since the government’s “seven-fold utility fee increase, we know that this is a lie” because, he insisted, Hungarians were paying the steepest price for gas in the whole of the EU.
Molnár said that at the same time it was still unknown exactly how much the government paid and the level of interest for charged for gas sold to Hungarian consumers, he said. When the party demanded data of public interest from the Hungarian energy company MVM and the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Stockpiling Association, one of them refused to make the data available and the other redacted the most important details, including the price of gas, he added.
Source: MTI
Lawsuits are a joke in Hungary if you ask any lawyer. The courts are stuffed with Fidesz appointed judges who are not going to allow anyone to win against the party. If you win a lawsuit and the court issues an order for the defendant to pay damages it goes to a collection agency to which the defendant must pay costs for collection. The collection agency is then paid a bribe by the defendant after which the collection agency reports to the plaintiff “We’re so sorry but it is impossible to collect.” Collection agencies are great businesses. This is Orbanistan and that account comes to me straight from a Hungarian business lawyer. As far as state large scale contracts with foreign entities are concerned secrecy is key for kickbacks.