Hungary Probes 827 Million Euro COVID Deal As Magyar Government Targets Orbán-Era Practices (Worthy News In-Depth)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s new government has asked prosecutors to investigate suspected fraud and financial misconduct surrounding the previous administration’s purchase of nearly 17,000 Chinese ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, while dozens of senior diplomats are being removed from their posts.

The ventilators cost nearly 300 billion forints, roughly 827 million euros ($964 million), but thousands were never used and some proved defective, according to government officials.

The purchases were unusually large for Hungary, a Central and Eastern European nation of about 9.5 million people. Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, who is not related to former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, noted that the number of ventilators purchased far exceeded the doctors, intensive-care nurses and hospital beds available to operate them.

Orbán stressed that an internal ministry investigation raised suspicions of “breach of fiduciary duty causing particularly substantial financial loss and other criminal offenses.”

DELETED FILES RECOVERED

Investigators also recovered documentation electronically following what the foreign minister described as unsuccessful attempts to delete files. The ministry handed prosecutors 88 gigabytes of information comprising about 130,000 recovered files, Worthy News learned.

Government officials indicated that most of the nearly 17,000 ventilators remain in warehouses, while a significant proportion were never deployed. Storage of the unused equipment has also cost millions of dollars.

Many of the ventilators were purchased through intermediary companies whose revenues increased sharply because of the transactions, according to the government.

Tuesday’s criminal complaint is the first resulting from an ongoing Foreign Ministry review as the new government investigates spending and other decisions dating from Viktor Orbán’s administration.

FORMER MINISTER SCRUTINIZED

Former Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, who served for nearly 12 years and developed close relations with Beijing, oversaw the ventilator purchases as well as Hungary’s procurement of 5 million doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.

Szijjártó left parliament last month to take an executive position with Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturer BYD, prompting conflict-of-interest allegations because of his previous role in facilitating substantial Hungarian government support for the company.

The Magyar government subsequently launched an investigation into large investments made in Hungary by BYD during Szijjártó’s tenure.

Former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán previously defended the massive ventilator purchases as necessary because of uncertainty during the early stages of the pandemic.

ORBÁN DEFENDED PURCHASES

Orbán explained that experts initially warned Hungary could require 8,000 to 10,000 ventilators under a worst-case scenario, prompting his government to acquire as many as 15,000 to 16,000 as a safety margin.

“You can’t play games with people’s health – let alone with people’s lives,” Orbán argued at the time, adding that emergency purchases should be “over-planned, rather than under-planned.”

Asked about the potential financial losses from buying so many ventilators, Orbán responded: “We believe that we have gained many hundreds of lives.”

Fidesz officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment on the new criminal complaint.

DIPLOMATIC SHAKE-UP

The ventilator investigation comes as Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government pursues its promised crackdown on alleged corruption and misuse of public funds following its election victory over Fidesz in April.

The shake-up has extended to Hungary’s diplomatic service. Foreign Minister Anita Orbán announced in June that 37 heads of foreign missions would be recalled, with the removal of 25 ambassadors and other mission chiefs formally published in late July.

Those affected included representatives in Washington, London, Moscow, Kyiv and The Hague. The personnel changes included several senior diplomats associated with the previous government, although official decrees recognized their service and did not characterize all of the departures as politically motivated dismissals.

Magyar’s landslide victory ended Orbán’s latest 16-year period as prime minister and gave the new government a mandate to overhaul institutions that critics said had become closely intertwined with Fidesz during its long rule.

ORBÁN REMAINS ACTIVE

Orbán did not take up a seat in the new parliament following the election defeat but remains chairman of Fidesz and has vowed to rebuild the party in opposition.

However, the 63-year-old former prime minister has rejected suggestions that his political career is over, telling supporters after his re-election as party chairman: “I do not give up, I never, never, never, never, never give up.”

For Magyar, 45, the investigations represent an early test of his pledge to pursue alleged corruption and misuse of public funds.

Rights groups and the European Union have also made clear that the new government faces the broader challenge of strengthening judicial independence and ensuring that Hungary’s law-enforcement and judicial institutions operate free from political interference.

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