New documentary digs deep into the wealth of Hungarian PM Orbán’s family! – VIDEO with English subtitles
Direkt36 investigators have been working for nearly a year on a documentary film that examines the business background of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s family. The film details the enrichment of the Prime Minister’s son-in-law, István Tiborcz, in which public procurement contracts that were found to be irregular by European Union inspectors, played a key role.
The film focuses not only on the current economic structures but also looks back at the processes that have underpinned this success story. It shows the political and business alliances that have helped the Orbán family to gain economic power since the 1990s.
The focus of the film
Economic success is rarely independent of the political environment, especially in a country where public resources play a key role in the development of large companies. This film shows how the political environment contributed to the growth of István Tiborcz’s companies and how the Prime Minister’s family was involved in their management.
It covers not only the events of recent years but also the background of the story. The network of relationships built up since the 1990s, in which Viktor Orbán and his former ally Lajos Simicska played a key role, provided an important basis for the economic opportunities that later took the form of a business empire.
The documentary also details the projects that helped István Tiborcz’s fortune grow spectacularly. Of particular interest are the public tenders that were found to be irregular by European Union inspectors. The proceeds from these tenders laid the foundations for the business network that now deals in luxury real estate, financial investments and other large-scale ventures.
The Orbán family’s business activities have been researched for years by various journalists, and in addition to Direkt36, Válasz Online, Telex and Forbes have also contributed to a deeper understanding of the story.
One of the most important contributions of the film is that it summarises and organises the information that has been uncovered so far, and also provides the audience with new details. The importance of such investigations is demonstrated by the fact that the business activities of those close to power are often hidden from the public and it takes persistent journalistic work to uncover the connections.
Reactions and conspiracy theories
According to Telex, shortly before the film’s release, the pro-government Magyar Nemzet newspaper launched an attack on Direkt36, claiming that the documentary was part of a “Ukrainian secret service operation” to discredit Viktor Orbán. Direkt36 strongly denied this accusation, stressing that the project was not influenced by domestic or foreign interests and did not receive any Ukrainian funding.
Menczer: Orbán to be attacked using Ukrainian, Soros’s money
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “will be attacked” using money from Ukraine and George Soros money, Fidesz communications chief Tamas Menczer said on social media on Friday, adding that the information came from the Hungarian secret services given at a briefing to parliament’s national security committee three days ago.
He said media outlet Direkt36’s film attacking Orbán was the first stage of Ukraine’s “campaign of defamation”, and he called on Direkt36 to reveal who gave it money and how much. Menczer referred to “forces financed from abroad”, saying Hungary would “fight them”, and declaring that “Hungary comes first! Not Brussels, not Ukraine. We know what they’re doing!”
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