Socialists take alleged Fidesz fraud in 2010 billboard campaign to chief prosecutor

The opposition Socialist Party has turned to the chief prosecutor concerning their suspicion that the ruling Fidesz party cheated in their billboard campaign ahead of the 2010 general election.

Socialist press chief István Nyakó told a press conference on Monday that Fidesz placed several thousand billboard advertisements “illegally” in 2010. He insisted that Fidesz had paid a mere 90 million forints (EUR 292m) to businessman Lajos Simicska for the advertising space at the time, while it should have cost between 700-800 million forints at market rates.

At another press conference last Wednesday, demanded to know which Fidesz official had approved the party’s 2010 billboard campaign. In response, Fidesz said that the Socialists “must be in a state of great despair” if they are still preoccupied with scrutinising the outcome of the 2010 elections.

Fidesz said in reaction that if the Socialists did indeed insist on turning to the chief prosecutor, they should reveal what they know about the alleged budgetary fraud case surrounding left-wing opposition politician Csaba Czeglédy instead of focusing on the 2010 campaign.

“What sort of services did Czeglédy provide for the Socialists that they are defending him so?” Fidesz’s parliamentary group asked in a statement.

Czeglédy was local government representative of Szombathely, in south-west Hungary, representing Éljen Szombathely-Socialists-DK-Együtt. He also worked as a lawyer for DK and the Socialists.

The Hungarian authorities recently seized a 1kg bar of gold bullion estimated to be worth 10 million forints (EUR 32,000) from an Austrian bank as part of an investigation into Czeglédy, who was taken into custody in June suspected of large-scale budgetary fraud.

Czeglédy is one of ten suspects in the case charged with committing tax evasion as part of a criminal organisation through a series of companies, causing damages to the state of up to 3 billion forints between 2013-2016.

Source: MTI