Orbán dismisses minister's arrest as political revenge
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Viktor Orbán has privately dismissed the arrest of former minister Hankó Balázs as a 'cultural revenge' by the opposition, a defense that appears to contradict the minister’s own legal strategy. Within the ruling Fidesz party, officials have struggled to settle on a unified explanation for the detention, which stems from a corruption probe into the National Cultural Fund.
The Central Statistical Office is facing scrutiny after it published data that appeared to misunderstand national tax laws. When researchers pointed out the inaccuracies, the office corrected the figures and deleted the researchers' comments. Elsewhere, a promised review of infrastructure spending has concluded with a familiar result: the new round of road construction tenders was won by the same firms as the last one.
Internet providers have warned they may raise prices by up to 140 percent, while the opposition Tisza Party claims its polling has crossed the 65 percent threshold. For those living near the country’s rapid transit roads, the problems are more immediate: residents say state planning has made their homes effectively uninhabitable.