Squabbling parties kick off new corruption cooperation deal with joint radio appearance

If you’ve ever gotten the feeling that all the hysterical finger-pointing by members of Hungary’s leading political parties over allegations of corruption is just a big pantomime aimed at keeping the populace distracted while they carve up the country for themselves, you may be right! Over the past week we’ve had a rather spectacular example of what may be a larger pattern of secretive spoils-sharing between Fidesz and their soon-to-be-powerless enemies, in the form of the decision by broadcast regulator ORTT to award two lucrative radio licenses – the ones currently used by Sláger and Danubius – to firms widely believed to be fronts for the parties who delegated the members of the supposedly “professional” panel. While ORTT chairman László Majtényi called the decision a “scandal”, refused to sign off on the deal, pretty much invited the losers to sue, and then resigned in protest, the deeply grubby carve-up appears set to go ahead. And it’s even grubbier than it may seem.

In addition to the fact that the deals will likely serve to improperly enrich certain favored people, bolster party coffers with additional black campaign cash, and give a further black eye to the country’s reputation as a credible investment destination – among the burned owners of Danubius is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – it will no doubt lead to a further politicization of the local media.

Oh, and speaking of a politicization of the local media, the entire story has been largely absent from the homepage of Fidesz-friendly Magyar Nemzet, which otherwise devotes billions of pixels to charges of dirty dealing by state bodies. It sort of makes you want to go back and see what the Soviet and German papers were saying in August of ’39 about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

The good news is that the radio deal may be something of a one-off, owing to the fact that the licenses were set to expire just a few months before the next scheduled general election. The bad news is that this is because the next election will mean Fidesz doesn’t need to do any dirty deals with any other party in order to do dirty deals for itself. Either way, the next time you hear someone from Fidesz complaining about Socialist/Liberal corruption or vice-versa, feel free to tune out.