Companies owned by 13 men close to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán won more than €28 billion in public contracts from 2010 to late 2025, according to a Financial Times investigation based on an analysis of nearly 350,000 state procurement contracts.
The FT reported that the group captured 14 percent of all funds awarded in Hungarian state tenders during Orbán’s time in office, up from just 1 percent in the five years before his 2010 election. On average, the companies won €1.8 billion a year after Orbán took power, a 15-fold increase from the €121 million annual average recorded in the preceding five years, the newspaper said.
Among the biggest beneficiaries identified by the FT was László Szíjj, whose company Duna Aszfalt won contracts worth €7.9 billion after Orbán took office, compared with €247 million in the prior five-year period. The report said Szíjj is a business partner of a close associate of Orbán and that his company is currently building a €747 million bridge across the Danube near Hungary’s border with Croatia and Serbia.
The FT said the network of beneficiaries included Orbán’s childhood friend Lőrinc Mészáros, now Hungary’s richest person, as well as the prime minister’s son-in-law István Tiborcz, longtime associate István Garancsi, and advertising businessman Gyula Balásy. The newspaper said many of the companies were also disproportionately likely to win contracts in tenders with no competing bids.
Orbán’s governing model, known as the “System of National Co-Operation,” is presented by the prime minister as a partnership between the state and private sector, the FT said. Critics cited by the newspaper described it as a system of cronyism in which public funds enrich Orbán’s allies.
“The elite robs the state of public funds, abusing a lack of the rule of law,” economist István János Tóth, director of the Corruption Research Center Budapest, told the FT.
Companies linked to the 13 associates also won €12 billion in EU-funded contracts after Orbán returned to power, including €700 million awarded after Brussels began freezing funds to Hungary over corruption concerns. About €18 billion in EU funds remains frozen, the newspaper said.
Read more at the Financial Times