Austria vacation with Orbáns?
Loyal friends probably take over flagship hotels – the “installer” is also involved
Created: 12/29/2022, 2:30 p.m
By: Florian Naumann
Viktor Orbán 2018 at an EU summit in Salzburg – confidants are apparently involved in the Austrian hotel industry.
© Sammy Minkoff/Imago
The EU criticizes corruption problems in Hungary.
But Viktor Orbán's network extends far beyond Budapest: In Austria, confidants are quite big in the holiday business.
Vienna/Munich – Tourism is an important issue for Austria: According to the Austrian Institute for Economic Research, the desire to travel accounts for 7.5 percent of the gross domestic product.
The country is correspondingly sensitive to unexpected developments in the travel industry.
And according to a report by
Standard
, there is at least one in the background – especially in the east of the country, loyalists of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have recently taken the helm several times.
In “prominently located hotels”.
Even Orbán's son-in-law is involved, writes the newspaper.
Just like his “installer”.
Austria: "Orbán's installer" is indirectly involved in "well-located hotels".
"There have been rumors for a long time that some hotels have been bought by Hungary," the
standard
quoted a local from the Carinthian holiday resort of Heiligenblut - not too far from the Grossglockner and near the Salzburg border.
"But you don't know exactly which Hungarians they are."
Research by the newspaper revealed the unexpected ownership quite clearly.
Company directories, among other things, show that Lőrinc Mészáros is involved in “two large and well-located hotels” in the town through company networks.
Mészáros is no stranger: the man nicknamed "Orbán's plumber" is considered a friend of the Hungarian head of government - and above all his helper in economic matters.
With Orbán's help, he has made the leap from a craftsman to one of the richest Hungarians.
The hotels are controlled by Opus Global via intermediaries, including Hunguest Hotels.
And this holding in turn, partly via detours, to very relevant parts of Mészáros' hand, writes the paper.
His daughter Beatrix was the head of the company until the beginning of 2022.
But pro-government people from Hungary are also active elsewhere in the Austrian hotel industry, for example in Styria.
Viktor Orbán: Son-in-law company probably makes money from tourism in Austria
According to the
standard
, there are also two Hungarian-owned hotels in the Kreischberg ski area near the town of St. Georgen ob Murau – and have been since 2017. They belonged to the Budapest-based real estate group BDPST.
This can actually be read on the BDPST website.
According to the company, the majority owner of the group is István Tiborcz, none other than Orbán's son-in-law.
He is also repeatedly involved in projects that are subject to criticism.
The newspaper's report apparently heated people's minds: Hundreds of readers commented.
However, it certainly points beyond the Austrian economy.
The EU has currently frozen billions in money for Hungary, not least because of concerns about corruption - and the outflow of taxpayers' money into opaque channels.
Some time ago, the
Handelsblatt
named Tiborcz as one of the actors in the “Hungary self-service shop”.
A decent fortune shouldn't hurt when entering Austria tourism.
(
fn
)
