<\/p>\n
However, this is something that Jobbik could be criticized for as well.<\/p>\n
Relatives of seven out of the eight-member leadership board have received positions or contracts from the party or its affiliates in recent years. In several cases the relatives were hired on the recommendation of their relatives in the party leadership. Or, the party turned to them just as their relatives were rising to higher positions inside Jobbik.<\/p>\n
The only exception among the eight board members is El\u0151d Nov\u00e1k, whose wife, D\u00f3ra D\u00far\u00f3, also happens to be a member of Jobbik\u2019s parliamentary group. Nov\u00e1k said, however, that their relationship had no effect on each other\u2019s political career.<\/p>\n
G\u00e1bor Vona claims that the model for Jobbik is the kind of democracy where people can advance based not on political loyalty or corruption but on talent, hard work, and honesty.<\/p>\n
It is true that Jobbik has not been rocked by any major corruption scandals yet. Still, the party is not free of controversies.<\/p>\n
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) launched an investigation against B\u00e9la Kov\u00e1cs, representing Jobbik in the European Parliament, on the suspicion that he misused public money through the employment of interns. In December, Direkt36 showed how some of Jobbik\u2019s funds ended up with companies owned by the friends and acquaintances of the party\u2019s main background operator. These companies were often commissioned for work for which the owners and managers had no proper qualifications.<\/p>\n
Jobbik claimed then that the selection was based on competence and they provided similar arguments in response to this story. The party told Direkt36 that they do not see any problem with hiring relatives of senior party officials because they were always chosen based on professional grounds.<\/p>\n
Beatrix Volner, wife of vice-president J\u00e1nos Volner, did not need much time to persuade Jobbik. Her company, Diamond Business Consulting, was contracted in January 2011 by the party just five days after its foundation.<\/p>\n
The company received HUF 500,000 (\u20ac1600) monthly fee for verbal advising on \u201cthe changes of rules in company management and accounting, and their effect on enterprises.\u201d In six months, Diamond Business received HUF 3m (\u20ac9600) in total from Jobbik, and it has not had any other revenues ever since (at least not until the end of 2014, the last year of which business reports are available). While Diamond Business advised Jobbik between January 2011 and June, the party contracted AABO System in December 2010 to advise on the same subject for an additional HUF 500.000 (\u20ac1600). This company had no direct link to J\u00e1nos Volner and her wife at the time, but it had been owned by them until May 2010.<\/p>\n
Neither Jobbik, nor the Volner couple wanted to explain why Jobbik chose Business Diamond and AABO, and how they worked for the party. The only comment Jobbik provided was that \u201cthe companies fully completed their tasks, and their mandate was needed due to their competence.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Diamond Consulting was advising Jobbik, Beatrix Volner was also working as J\u00e1nos Volner\u2019s personal secretary, as the tabloid Blikk revealed in April 2011. Jobbik confirmed that Beatrix Volner worked as his husband\u2019s personal assistant for a monthly fee of HUF 85,000 (\u20ac270), but neither Jobbik nor the Volner couple disclosed for how long she held this position.<\/p>\n
Volner explained to Blikk that her wife had assisted him for ten years in the business sphere, and she was the only one whom he could ask to work on weekends.<\/p>\n
Beside Volner\u2019s wife, the father of party director G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3 also received two thousand euros for consultancy work. Many people close to Jobbik reckon that G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3 is the most influential member of the party as he is in charge of local organizations and he knows Jobbik members the most.<\/p>\n
His father, Gy\u00f6rgy Szab\u00f3, used to work as a car mechanic. He joined Jobbik at its 2003 foundation, and he has been a member of its ethics committee ever since. Gy\u00f6rgy Szab\u00f3 also became a city councillor in Budapest in 2010. Between 2010 and 2012 he was a member of the supervisory board at the municipal Funeral Company. He was also a supervisory board member at the Centre for Budapest Transport between 2010 and 2014, and he has been a board member of the Budapest Transport Cooperation since January 2015.<\/p>\n
Beside transportation issues, Gy\u00f6rgy Szab\u00f3 focused on renovating a cemetery in Budapest. Szab\u00f3 told Direkt36 that he spoke about this research with his son, G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3, and that is why Jobbik\u2019s parliamentary group ordered from him a study on the \u2018current issues of cemeteries.\u2019 Gy\u00f6rgy Szab\u00f3 completed his 50 page long study for HUF 610,000 (\u20ac2000) in 2012.<\/p>\n
Istv\u00e1n Ap\u00e1ti, Istv\u00e1n Sz\u00e1vay and D\u00e1niel Z. K\u00e1rp\u00e1t were elected to be vice-presidents in June 2014 at the last congress of Jobbik. They also have relatives who developed business ties with Jobbik or its party foundation.<\/p>\n
The parliamentary group of Jobbik contracted T+F 2002, a company then owned by Ferenc Ap\u00e1ti, Istv\u00e1n Ap\u00e1ti\u2019s brother, to advise the party on agriculture. Ferenc Ap\u00e1ti holds a degree in agricultural economics and works as an associate professor at the University of Debrecen. According to his CV, he has been researching agriculture for more than a decade. According to the contract, T+F produced 3-4-page long studies for the party on average every month between April 2015 and December 2015. The company was paid HUF 118,500 (\u20ac380) for each study, and got HUF 1.01 million (\u20ac3500) in total.<\/p>\n
Istv\u00e1n Ap\u00e1ti told Direkt36 that he recommended his brother to Jobbik because of his competence as \u201call parties need consultants with knowledge, like his brother\u2019s.\u201d The 9-month long contract was not extended, because, according to Istv\u00e1n Ap\u00e1ti, his brother is extremely busy.<\/p>\n
Ferenc Ap\u00e1ti said that his work was required for supporting party motions on the rural development program of the government, which was being drafted at the time. Ferenc Ap\u00e1ti also claimed that \u201csadly there is no one else one in Hungary researching the economy of the vegetable and fruit sector\u201d and Jobbik could not have contracted anyone else in this subject who has such research results.<\/p>\n
A company owned by D\u00e1niel Z. K\u00e1rp\u00e1t\u2019s mother and the then 79-years old grandmother received HUF 1m (\u20ac3300) from Jobbik\u2019s party foundation, as TV channel RTL Klub reported. The firm K\u00e1rp\u00e1tia M\u0171hely received the money for publishing a book. Although D\u00e1niel Z. K\u00e1rp\u00e1t has not held any position at K\u00e1rp\u00e1tia M\u0171hely since 2012, the reporter of RTL Klub was told at the headquarters that Z. K\u00e1rp\u00e1t is the right person to ask about the company.<\/p>\n
Istv\u00e1n Sz\u00e1vay and his brother, L\u00e1szl\u00f3, got involved in the activities of Jobbik early, at the time of its foundation. L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Sz\u00e1vay studied philosophy, theology and history and originally he pursued an academic career. Since May 2012, the parliamentary group of Jobbik has contracted him 13 times through two years for verbal consultancy. In total, L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Sz\u00e1vay received HUF 2 million (\u20ac6500). He told Direkt36 that the director of the parliamentary group, Gergely Farkas, asked him to give communication advice and to do creative work for the party.<\/p>\n
L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Sz\u00e1vay claimed that everyone was very satisfied with his work and that is how he established close ties with Jobbik\u2019s leadership . Direkt36 has learned from sources familiar with Jobbik that L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Sz\u00e1vay is part of G\u00e1bor Vona\u2019s advisory team, however Sz\u00e1vay refused to comment this. The advisory team\u2019s informal name is Tr\u00f6szt and consists of five members. G\u00e1bor Vona previously said in an interview in ATV that the members of this group are \u201cyoung geniuses\u201d and that he speaks with them before all of his major speeches.<\/p>\n
L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Sz\u00e1vay started to work full time in politics in June 2015 when he became the leader of Jobbik MP D\u00f3ra D\u00far\u00f3\u2019s team who heads the parliament\u2019s committee on culture.<\/p>\n
G\u00e1bor Vona\u2019s wife has played an essential role in developing Jobbik-leaning media. Barikad.hu, a news portal close to Jobbik, was established in 2007 and Vona and his wife, Krisztina Vona-Szab\u00f3, worked the most on the website in the early days.<\/p>\n
According to a person close to Vona at the time, Vona wrote posts using an alias. The print version of Barik\u00e1d was launched in 2009, and one of the party\u2019s politicians, S\u00e1ndor P\u00f6rzse, has become officially its editor-in-chief in 2010, but multiple sources confirmed that in effect Krisztina Vona-Szab\u00f3 acted as the top editor. She edited and ordered the articles, made decisions on assignments and consulted the party leadership on them. During this period, G\u00e1bor Vona was an owner of Magyar H\u00edrek Ltd., publisher of Barik\u00e1d, together with Csan\u00e1d Szegedi. According to a source, Vona repeatedly exerted influence over Barik\u00e1d\u2019s content, for example he wanted to see the whole paper before publication. In 2011, Krisztina Vona-Szab\u00f3 obtained G\u00e1bor Vona\u2019s business share.<\/p>\n
The editorial room of Barik\u00e1d used to operate at Jobbik\u2019s parliamentary offices and Krisztina Vona-Szab\u00f3 regularly went there to work. In March 2011, her name appeared in the imprint of Barik\u00e1d as the member of the editorial board, and occasionally she published columns. After the fallout between Csan\u00e1d Szegedi and Jobbik in autumn 2012, Magyar H\u00edrek was bought by Ir\u00e1nyt\u0171 Int\u00e9zet, a Jobbik-leaning think tank. Its owner, Rich\u00e1rd Forrai, told Direkt36 that Ir\u00e1nyt\u0171 bought Szab\u00f3-Vona\u2019s share as well because he wanted to have full ownership in order to transform the company.<\/p>\n
Krisztina Vona-Szab\u00f3 did not only sell her ownership but she also left the company and \u201cretired from public life\u201d, according to sources close to Jobbik. In 2014, however, she returned as an editor of Barik\u00e1d.<\/p>\n
Magyar H\u00edrek received almost HUF 97m (\u20ac307,000) in total from Jobbik\u2019s party foundation since 2011.\u00a0This amount was around 20 percent of its revenues between 2010 and 2014. We put several questions to G\u00e1bor Vona and Krisztina Vona-Szab\u00f3 regarding their role at Barik\u00e1d, but neither of them replied.<\/p>\n
Krisztina Vona-Szab\u00f3\u2019s sister, Judit Szab\u00f3, also has held various positions close to his brother-in-law, G\u00e1bor Vona. Between 2010 and 2012 she worked as a secretary of Barik\u00e1d and then she became G\u00e1bor Vona\u2019s secretary. Since the summer of 2013, she has been Rich\u00e1rd Forrai\u2019s assistant at Ir\u00e1nyt\u0171 Int\u00e9zet. In November 2015 she became a manager at Magyar H\u00edrek together with Forrai. At the same time, she also became a manager at LKG Stars, a company owned by Forrai that organizes exclusive events for Jobbik.<\/p>\n
The Szab\u00f3 sisters also work as editors at Igen\u00e9let, a newly launched lifestyle magazine. Some of its staff members have links to Jobbik, however, the party told Direkt36 that they do not have any formal ties with the magazine.<\/p>\n
There are some other members of Jobbik\u2019s leadership board whose relatives worked as personal secretaries. The ex-wife of Tam\u00e1s Sneider, Jobbik\u2019s other vice-president , was also his personal secretary between 2010 and 2014. G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3\u2019s sister , Andrea Szab\u00f3, was MEP Csan\u00e1d Szegedi\u2019s assistant in Brussels for five months, as Hvg.hu reported.<\/p>\n
Even though current MEP Zolt\u00e1n Balcz\u00f3 ceased to be a vice-president of Jobbik in 2014, his relatives still hold positions at Jobbik-leaning media organizations. His son, M\u00e1ty\u00e1s Balcz\u00f3, has been a journalist and editor at Barik\u00e1d since 2010. His wife, Csilla Balcz\u00f3-S\u00e1ndor, also works there as journalist. Between 2011 and 2013 she received HUF 4.5m (\u20ac15,000) from Jobbik for her verbal advice, studies and articles for the party\u2019s newspaper. She was also a member of supervisory board at a public company (V\u00edzkutat\u00f3 Ter\u00fclethasznos\u00edt\u00f3) for a year from August 2011.<\/p>\n
Jobbik stated that they exclusively contracted Jobbik leaders\u2019 relatives based on their \u201cprofessional performance.\u201d They added that \u201cfamily ties don\u2019t play any role in Jobbik\u2019s HR policy, we order services from people and companies based on their merits.\u201d<\/p>\n
For information on companies, we used the databases of Ceginfo<\/a> and\u00a0Opten<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The greatest problem of Hungary is corruption and nepotism, says G\u00e1bor Vona, the president of the Hungarian radical party, Jobbik. In this respect, Jobbik could be a subject of criticism as well. Close family members of seven out of eight board members of the party were commissioned with important or highly valued projects from Jobbik.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[436],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-jobbik-megerosodese","author-admin"],"authors":[{"term_id":436,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin","display_name":"Admin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e999823dfcf71f38716de6aaa10e8a76af19a147fb9534c0f5eccf2a5b624341?s=96&d=mm&r=g","description":"@param string $between Delimiter that should appear between the co-authors\r\n * @param string $betweenLast Delimiter that should appear between the last two co-authors * @param string $before What should appear before the presentation of co-authors * @param string $after What should appear after the presentation of co-authors * @param bool $echo Whether the co-authors should be echoed or returned. Defaults to true.","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"http:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9166,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions\/9166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}