Jobbik leader asks Integrity Authority review on Spar allegations

Spar’s head told media outlets that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had tried to convince Spar to sell a minority stake to one of his relatives, Marton Gyongyosi, the party’s leader, told a press conference on Friday, adding that when the Hungarian government introduced a special tax on various foreign subsidiaries, it was a form of “blackmail” aimed at getting the companies to sell business stakes to friends or family members of the prime minister or other government members.

Gyongyosi suggested that this was the reason why Spar had submitted a complaint to the European Commission and the EU budget committee. He also suggested that this could be the reason why an EU country report said last year that the government regularly harassed foreign investors in Hungary.