ReportageOn the shore of Lake Ferto, a tourist complex under construction is denounced by its detractors as the embodiment of the “Orban system”, mixing crony capitalism, violation of European directives, opacity and pressure on dissenting voices.
In the northwest of Hungary, a few hundred meters from the old leisure base of Fertorakos, a guarded barrier filters the access of trucks to Lake Ferto, a place once popular with tourists. A panel displaying Caribbean-colored water boasts of the complex under construction on the Hungarian shore of this lake shared with Austria and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. On site, workers dispatched from the other side of the country working hard to prepare the ground. It is the consortium led by Lorinc Meszaros – the country’s greatest fortune and childhood friend of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister – which is in charge of this first phase of work. What indignant Adrienn Jakal, elected from the opposition of the municipal council of Sopron, a city located about ten kilometers away. “The last twelve years of the Orban government have only served one thing: to enrich the faithful of the Prime Minister and Viktor Orban himself, at the cost of sacrificed natural spaces, such as Lake Ferto. »
The opponents of the project, of which the elected member is a part, hoped for a political change in April, during the legislative elections, which finally renewed Viktor Orban at the head of the government. They are now counting on future economic difficulties to at least slow down the execution of the project. Because, for many, the investment in Fertorakos embodies the “Orban system”, where crony capitalism, violation of European directives, absence of dialogue and discredit of critical voices are mixed.
A “system” which Arpad Nemes paid the price. For eighteen years, this Hungarian has accompanied tourists on this lake, which is 1.80 meters deep on average, as well as its abundant reed bed and its precious ecosystem. Deprived of access to the Fertorakos leisure base, where his three boats were anchored, Arpad Nemes was forced to take early retirement at the end of autumn 2020.
“I had a ninety-nine-year contract to lease the site of my wharf from the Hungarian state. Overnight, it was broken. Worse, the beginning of the Viragosmajor canal is considered to be part of the construction site: impossible to use it. However, it does not lead directly to the construction site. It would be enough for me to turn left to reach Austria without disturbing anyone”, sighs the 66-year-old man. Since Gabihis largest boat, sank along the Viragosmajor canal, lined with reeds, 1.5 kilometers from the works, on the former leisure base of Fertorakos, the only one on the Hungarian shore of the lake. “There, at the back of the boat, was the barbecue area, remembers the captain, who is pointing to the stern of the Gabihopelessly empty. And to think that there are still customers calling me to book boat trips. »
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