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City Council), and it is still awaiting
a new government before it is properly launched (and funded).
Yet, according to Roubal, though there may be divisions over the Communist past, there is little real debate that the Velvet Revolution ended the Communist period. Unlike Poland or Hungary, few believe that the revolution was ‘stolen’ or ‘unfinished’ and he argues that
the fact that there was no museum of totalitarianism shows that the political elite did not think it was necessary to propagate an official narrative. “The need is not there to make a political statement on this,” he says.
Czech patriotism therefore is no longer rooted in liberation from the Habsburgs,
though is it not yet entirely firmly based on freedom from the USSR. It does not look back at a glorious past, so much
as at a history of oppression that the Czechs have had to endure, something that explains their continuing suspicion of authority and arguably their introspection or provincialism.
This “Svejkism” was something that former dissident and president Vaclav Havel berated his countrymen for. But it appears far less tragic when compared with the historical mythmaking
and bitter divisions in neighbouring Poland and Hungary over not just
their communist past and its alleged continuing influence, but also over their interwar authoritarian regimes and their anti-Semitic legacy. These debates
have poisoned their politics and led to the rise of the current radical rightwing governments that are dismantling their democracies.
And though it looks weaker, Czech patriotism’s quiet strength is that it can laugh at itself, despite the country’s tortured history. When Czechs were surveyed in 2005 on their greatest forebears, the winner (later disqualified) was Jara Cimrman, a fictitious comic polymath. The cult anti-hero, a patriot battling (at least in his own mind) Habsburg oppression, is said to be the original author of many of the world’s greatest creations, but he was simply ignored by the rest of the world because he was just a little Czech.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s proxy is richest Hungarian ever
bne IntelliNews
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s friend and close ally Lorinc Meszaros is Hungary’s richest man with wealth of HUF500bn (€1.4bn), according to Forbes’ annual list of Hungary’s 50 Richest. Hungary’s billionaires’ have become ever richer under Orban and have never been as wealthy as in 2020.
The former gas fitter managed to increase his assets by HUF70bn despite a divorce and the underperformance of his flagship holding company Opus Global on the Budapest bourse.
The holding consists of 40 companies from all sectors of the economy, from asset management, insurance, agriculture, industry to construction and tourism. Meszaros used to have a huge media portfolio, but he transferred it to the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA) controlled by Orban allies.
The former mayor of Orban’s home village, Meszaros has been portrayed as the proxy to the prime minister. Orban himself claims to have zero savings, according to his latest asset declaration.
Meszaros' rise to the business elite began after Lajos Simicska, the former cashier of Fidesz fell out of favour with the prime minister in early 2015. After the break-up, Simicska’s companies were excluded from state tenders and Hungary’s most powerful oligarch was forced to
sell his companies after the 2018 elections. His media companies were gobbled up by Meszaros.
The sale of Hungary’s second-largest power plant also boost- ed his wealth. State-owned utility giant MVM paid HUF17.4bn for his 76% stake in Hungary’s second-largest power plant last year. The state had injected an additional HUF57bn for the loss-making coal-fired plant later, but that was only revealed after a data request by opposition politicians.
When Meszaros acquired the company in the spring of 2018 he tapped HUF11bn of dividends set aside by former owner Germany's RWE and EnBW.
The former gas fitter’s wealth has shown an exponential rise from HUF8bn in 2015. He broke the HUF100bn mark in 2017.
While other companies are struggling to stay afloat, the pandemic has had little impact on Orban’s cronies. They have also benefited from state lifelines. Hunguest Hotels, owned by Meszaros was the recipient of a HUF17bn state grant during the first wave.
This did not prevent Hungary’s richest man from laying off hundreds of people. In comparison, the government is dishing out some HUF27bn for more than 14,000 companies to save 100,000 jobs in tourism and catering.
The future looks bright for Orban’s loyal friend as the state continues to doll out multi-billion euro contracts, including the €12.5bn construction of the Paks nuclear power plant and major railway development projects.
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