Page 35 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine December 2024

bne December 2024 Central Europe I 35
pointed out that many startups seek financing in the US due to the lack of supportive financial infrastructure in Europe. “There is no magic bullet. What the report is advocating is massive spending and the question is how to achieve that,” she said.
One of the report’s main recommenda- tions is a call for massive spending on future growth, but the challenge lies in how to finance it. Javorcik said that Europe must make strategic invest- ments in innovation and productiv- ity while being mindful of fiscal constraints. “The money has to come from somewhere, which is a sensitive topic,” she added.
The report suggests that this investment could come at the EU level, giving
all member states access to funds
and preventing governments from misallocating resources. However, the downside is the need to raise significant amounts of capital. Another alternative would be to encourage countries to spend more on their own, potentially
by loosening state aid rules. However, this could create inequalities between countries with more fiscal space and those facing tighter budgets.
For Eastern Europe, the fiscal space is generally more limited than in Western Europe, but Javorcik remains optimistic, explaining that Eastern Europe still
stands to benefit from increased investment in countries like Germany, which would fuel exports. However, countries in the region have been
hit hard by external demand shocks, particularly from Western Europe, and by high energy costs, which soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Several countries in the region saw faster wage growth and more expansionary fiscal policies, which helped soften the blow. However, some are now facing scrutiny from Brussels over budget defi- cits, particularly Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, making it harder to commit to supporting the innovation and invest- ment that is urgently needed.
Hungarian opposition leader claims Fidesz is
wiretapping him for black propaganda campaign
Tamas Csonka in Budapest
Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar has alleged that Prime Minister Viktor Orban's office is employing private intelligence agen- cies to gather potentially compromising personal information on him and his associates.
The leader of the Tisza Party said Fidesz would launch an unprecedented smear campaign against him, which will include wiretapped conversations of MEPs, secret recordings by his former girl- friend and false claims generated by AI.
At a press conference on November 9 titled "Hungarian Watergate, the largest scandal since the change of regime", Magyar presented alleged evidence that his former partner Evelin Vogel had made audio recordings in secret and had demanded HUF30mn (€74,000)
to keep silent.
The politician alleged that his former partner had made an agreement with the ruling Fidesz party, handing over 11 hours of audio recordings, and had tried to blackmail people tied to the Tisza Party.
According to Magyar, his ex-wife, former justice minister Judit Varga,
and Vogel receive monthly payments from an associate of Antal Rogan, the head of Orban’s cabinet office and the person overseeing Hungary’s intel- ligence services and the person behind the alleged smear campaign. Vogel lives in a downtown apartment in Budapest
on Facebook. At a press conference, Magyar said he would file a complaint against Vogel for blackmail.
The former Fidesz cadre has been the target of an unprecedented smear campaign since he launched his Tisza Party, which according to the latest polls, has overtaken Fidesz.
“The politician alleged that his former partner had made an agreement with the ruling Fidesz party, handing over 11 hours of audio recordings, and had tried to blackmail people tied to the Tisza Party”
owned by a businessman close to Rogan and regularly receives HUF5mn in cash for her "services".
Vogel accused his former partner of aggressive behaviour in a video inter- view with Hungary’s leading online portal index.hu, and later did the same
Magyar cited upcoming "unprecedented" attacks, which he said would include AI-manipulated recordings mixed with real content, the discussions of Tisza Party members and materials acquired from Vogel. The fabricated content, he said, is set to be uploaded to Objectiv.hu in the coming days.
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