After an intriguingly unsuccessful attempt last year, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and his wife Klára Dobrev have managed to buy a property they had been hankering after in the Somogy County village of Kötcse. According to local portal sonline.hu, the Gyurcsány family bought the house from Kossuth Award-winning musician László Dés for Ft 80 million (roughly €300,000). Oddly, it stands right across from a mansion where Fidesz holds its annual “civil picnics.”
In other political villa news, Free Democrat Imre Lakos, assistant mayor of Budapest’s District XI (Újbuda), has apparently joined Finance Minister Péter Oszkó in getting busted for breaking local building regulation. According to the Fidesz-friendly and SZDSZ-hating Magyar Nemzet, while local regulations specify that houses cannot occupy more 15% of a given plot’s total area, Lakos’ villa occupies at least 35%-40%. For his part, Lakos denied that his house was in violation.
