A follow-up to last weekend's political story, and a preview of tomorrow's GDP data

HUNGARY - In Brief 13 Feb 2024 by Istvan Racz

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As we reported on President Novak's sudden resignation on Sunday, we wrote that the case will not have immediate consequences on investors. This still looks correct, yet there has surfaced since then a completely unusual story, which may carry a currently unknown but potentially material significance for the future. This story is that the former husband of ex-justice minister and Fidesz election list leader Mrs. Varga (who also resigned from all political positions), a gentleman called Péter Magyar, otherwise someone deeply embedded in Fidesz' core establishment, announced on Facebook his resignation all of his current positions as board memberships in important publicly owned companies, emphatically expressing a rather negative view of the state of affairs in the governing party's inner circles. He also appeared in a long youtube interview, which has had close to 1.3 million views locally just over two days. In that, he specifically attacked the government's propaganda and secret service minister Antal Rogán, PM Orbán's rarely-seen associate, accusing him of alleged macchiavellian practices and indirectly of serial corruption cases. Mr. Magyar also criticised the rapid accumulation of wealth in the hands of just a few families in the country, specifically going against Mr. Orbán's son-in-law, and thus indirectly against Mr. Orbán himself. Asked by the media, the Prime Minister's press secretary dismissed the case, saying that the government does not reflect to this kind of unfounded comments by desperate young men, who are frustrated by the lack of success in their private life. And maybe the whole thing is about nothing more than this. Yet we see some question marks ...