<\/p>\n
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n might be one of Brussels\u2019 toughest foes but at the same time another of his closest relatives has become a beneficiary of the European Union\u2019s subsidies system.<\/p>\n
At the end of August, a company co-owned by Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr., one of the two brothers of the prime minister, won an EU grant worth 291 million forints (940 thousand euros). Gamma Analcont Kft., a technology firm, received the money to carry out a renewable energy project in consortium with another company.<\/p>\n
This was the second grant won by Gamma Analcont this year. In January, the firm was awarded 57 million (184 thousand euros) to expand its production capacities.<\/p>\n
Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr. has been holding 26 percent of the company since January 2015, records show. Gamma Analcont had won EU grants even before he joined the firm. In 2009 and 2013, the firm got subsidies worth of 62 million forints (200 thousand euros).<\/p>\n
The funding for the subsidies comes from the European Union\u2019s budget but the grant system is operated by the Hungarian government. Since an institutional reshuffle in 2013, the system has been under the control of the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Although many other companies have received grants similar to Gamma Analcont\u2019s (or even much bigger ones), the case of Orb\u00e1n Jr.\u2019s company is made special by the fact that EU-bashing has been a central element of Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government policies since he came into power in 2010. He compared Brussels to the Moscow of communism\u2019s darkest period and his government\u2019s current anti-immigrant campaign is partly an attack against the EU.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s Press Office refused to answer Direkt36\u2019s questions, arguing that they have nothing to do with this matter. Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr. did not respond to our inquiries either.<\/p>\n
Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr. has been working in the mining businesses that his father launched back in the 90s. He has never held political office and his public appearances were mostly limited to his sports activities (he is a wrestler and won tournaments).<\/p>\n
Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr. is not the only member of the prime minister\u2019s inner circle whose businesses have received substantial EU funds. As Direkt36 showed in a 2015 story<\/a>, Istv\u00e1n Tiborcz, the prime minister\u2019s son-in-law, L\u0151rinc M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros, a friend of the prime minister, and Lajos Simicska, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s long-time ally, have also been beneficiaries of the EU. After Fidesz\u2019s election victory in 2010, their companies have won many public contracts financed mostly by the EU.<\/p>\n The grant that Gamma Analcont won in August is part of a programme designed to boost the research and development activities of private companies. More than 67 billion forints (216 million euros) were distributed among nearly 250 firms. Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr.\u2019s company received a grant that was a little more than the average, with many companies getting much larger subsidies, even as much as one billion forints (3.2 million euros).<\/p>\n Gamma Analcont has received the grant to carry out a renewable energy project in consortium with another firm, Borsodtech. They promised to design and build an \u201doff-grid mobile biomass heating system,\u201d grant records show. The EU will cover 62 percent of the project\u2019s expenses and the companies have to provide the rest of the funding.<\/p>\n Gamma Analcont did not respond to our questions on the project and what role Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr. plays in the company. G\u00e1bor Nagy, the manager of Borsodtech, the consortium partner, told Direkt36 that he does not want to talk about the project\u2019s details because the agreements between the two companies have not been finalized yet. In response to a question, he said that he did not know that the prime minister\u2019s brother is a co-owner of Gamma Analcont.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A company co-owned by Gy\u0151z\u0151 Orb\u00e1n Jr., the brother of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, received two EU grants this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-444.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[522],"class_list":["post-9608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elnyelt-eu-penzek","author-cap-andraspetho"],"authors":[{"term_id":522,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"cap-andraspetho","display_name":"AndrasPetho","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","description":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9608","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9608"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=9608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Research and Development<\/h2>\n
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