Budapest finds itself in the red lantern. “After a decade of democratic backsliding and general deterioration of the rule of law” under the Nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, Hungary slipped to the bottom of the ranking, published Tuesday, January 31, of the NGO Transparency International among the twenty-seven countries of the European Union (EU). In the penultimate place in 2021, Hungary now passes behind Bulgaria. “Evidence is mounting of political elites misappropriation of public money and European Union funds”believes the Berlin-based organization.
This annual ranking, which has existed since 1995 and has become a closely monitored barometer, ranks 180 countries and territories according to the degree of perception of corruption in the public sector. The mark zero designates the very bad students and 100, the most virtuous. Hungary posted 42 points last year, tied with Kuwait or Burkina Faso.
Curb corruption
The ranking announcement comes as the EU blocks some 12 billion euros of funds earmarked for Budapest pending reforms to stem corruption. The measures taken at this stage were considered “insufficient”. A so-called authority “integrity” was set up, including an expert from Transparency International among its members.
Since Mr. Orban’s return to power in 2010, his inner circle has grown dramatically, from his childhood friend Lorinc Meszaros to his son-in-law Istvan Tiborcz who now control large swaths of the economy.
The Hungarian government immediately castigated the NGO’s study in a press release, expressing surprise that it did not examine the practices of “the bureaucracy of Brussels or of the European Parliament”recently rocked by a corruption scandal.
Budapest also accused Transparency International “to belong to the Soros network”in reference to George Soros, the Jewish-American billionaire born in Hungary and reviled by the regime.