A Sense of Foreshadowing

So far I have introduced Hagyó Miklós, the former socialist politician (MSZP – Budapest district XII Deputy Mayor) and co-supervisor of the Budapest Public Transport Company (BKV), who for nearly three years has been the primary suspect in the high-profile BKV corruption scandal.  

Also, in my last post I gave a brief introduction to how the “Hagyó Case” has evolved from the BKV severance pay case; Balogh Zsolt, the acting CEO of BKV during the payment scandal, had made incriminating statements about Hagyó in March 2010 during interviews with right-side media outlets like HírTV and the Magyar Nemzet.  Zsolt accused Hagyó of physical, emotional, and professional intimidation which coerced Zsolt, in a moment of self-proclaimed “weakness,” into passing Hagyó 15 million Hungarian forints hidden inside a Nokia phone box for an ambiguous “membership fee.”  Essentially, according to Mr. Zsolt Balogh, Hagyó was bullying large sums of money from him.  Later Zsolt retraced his steps and said the money was not intended as a “membership fee,” but for a contract between BKV and Synergon – a Hungarian informatics and systems integration company.  Balogh accumulated more skeptics when the details of the money transfer had changed during multiple testimonies.  During this post I would like to further elaborate on this history of the “Hagyó Case.”

Firstly, an important detail relating to the contracts and the credibility of Balogh’s testimonies should be mentioned.  In his first testimony Balogh specified that he signed the contract with Synergon because of pressure from Miklós; specifically Zsolt feared for his job, according to the Magyar Nemzet – a well-known Hungarian newspaper strongly associated with the governing Fidesz party.  However, it was realized once the case files had been made public that in a different interview Zsolt confessed the Synergon contract was signed, not because of a singular instance of intimidation from Hagyó, but because of a period when BKV was signing many contracts with companies in an effort to further develop the transportation company.  The Synergon contract was part of an effort to build passenger information systems designated for a specific location of public transportation network in Budapest.  Thus, it appears true that the Synergon contract was legitimately for the development of the Budapest Transport Company.

Another point of interest about Balogh’s behavior  is his preference for the Hungarian right-side media.  Those type of right-side media powers that have politically and economically opposed, if not combated, the MSZP.  Every interview Zsolt gave was directly or indirectly connected to the Fidesz party – the major opposing party to Hagyo’s MSZP.

And to put the icing on Zsolt’s testimonial cake, he began publicly incriminating Hagyó one month prior to the national elections.  At that time, MSZP – keep in mind this is Hagyó’s party and the major opposition to the Fidesz - had been the Parliamentary power for eight years, since 2002.  Before that, Fidesz member Viktor Orbán had been Prime Minister from 1998 -2002.  And, who happened to be Fidesz’s Prime Minister candidate that year – Mr. Viktor Orbán himself.  Indeed, he was elected and currently serves as Prime Minister of the Hungarian government.

So let me summarize that for you:

1.  In March 2009 – only one month before the major Parliamentary elections – former CEO of the Budapest Transport Company and suspect in the corruption case involving the same company, give interviews to notoriously right-side media outlet.

2.  These interviews accused Hagyó, a major symbol of the governing political party MSZP, of fraud, bribery, and involvement in a criminal organization.

3.  The Fidesz party used Hagyó as a symbol of MSZP and government corruption during the month leading up to the April election; the Fidesz party essentially constructed a huge smear-campaign against Hagyó.

4. Viktor Orbán, Fidesz politician, became Prime Minister of the Hungarian government after receiving a 52% majority vote with promises of eliminating government corruption, job creation, and a better Hungary.

Once the Fidesz party received the necessary two-thirds majority vote on April 11^th, 2010, they controlled the parliament.  So, with Orbán as head of the government and his Fidesz subordinates controlling Parliament it seemed a dismal future for the MSZP party.  Well, it has been so far.  But not just for those who do not support the current regime.  Most rationally thinking and sensible Hungarians observe the increasingly authoritarian policies and corrupt actions of the currently governing Fidesz party.

Source: http://thehagyocase.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/a-sense-of-foreshadowing/