The Walkway to Nowhere: a monument to Hungarian patronage politics
A mayor in eastern Hungary, eager to get a small piece of the billions of euros provided to his country by the European Union, applied for money to build a ‘treetop walk’ that would provide panoramic views of the forest outside his village.
Hungarian officials responsible for distributing European money welcomed the idea and approved a grant worth about $175,000 in 2021. The elevated walkway in the village of Nyirmartonfalva, near the border with Romania, now extends for almost 100 metres, next to a wooden observation tower.
There’s just one problem: the mayor, a supporter of Hungary’s ruling party Fidesz and owner of the land where the treetop walkway was built last year, cut down all the trees and sold them for lumber before construction began. So the treetop path looks out onto a vast empty earth.
The project is one of tens of thousands undertaken in Hungary under European Union-funded programs to help narrow the economic gap between the bloc’s wealthier original members in the west and newer entrants, especially those in the east.
But even as he has shamed Brussels for what he sees as its interference in Hungary’s internal affairs, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has made lavish use of such EU funds to send cash and other benefits to his political allies.
Tipped off by a hiker who stumbled upon the looming wooden structure on a plot of empty land last year, Akos Hadhazy, an opposition lawmaker, aided by press critical of the government, has turned the walkway into a hiking trail. cause celebre.
“The whole system here is built on Fidesz granting financial favors to its supporters,” Mr Hadhazy said in Budapest, citing the Nyirmartonfalva footbridge as a prime example.
Alarmed by the uproar, the European Union’s executive branch asked the Hungarian government for an explanation. In response, Zsolt Papp, a Hungarian official responsible for disbursing European rural development money, sent a letter in August saying the government had looked at the treetop path and found it “did not fully comply” with the conditions of the grant application (since there were no trees left) and canceled the financing.
“The purpose of the project would not be achieved in the near future,” the letter said.
The EU’s anti-fraud office in Brussels said it has an “ongoing investigation” into the project. It is unclear who ultimately paid for the walkway.
On a recent trip to Nyirmartonfalva there were few visitors, just some village children on a school outing.
“We call it our Bridge of Sighs,” says Attila Rozsa, a Fidesz voter and resident of Nyirmartonfalva. “Every time you see it you sigh at how much it costs.”
A journalist from Atlatszo, an investigative news site, did this a tongue-in-cheek video analyzing the walkway as an avant-garde work of art. The title: “Corrupt mayor or misunderstood genius?”
Abroad, Mr Orban is revered by many right-wing Europeans and former US President Donald J. Trump for opposing “the woke movement and gender ideology” and pledge to defend national sovereignty against the dictates of the European Union.
At home, however, the glue that strengthens his support, according to independent political analysts and his enemies, is money, which underlies a network of intertwined state institutions and private companies, largely run by Orban’s Fidesz party allies.
Transparency International, an anti-graft watchdog, ranked Hungary as the most corrupt EU country in January.
In a speech Thursday, US Ambassador David Pressman said of Hungary: “All aspects of government power – from procurement, to licensing, to tourism subsidies, to concessions, to tax and audit measures, to regulatory policies – provide favorable treatment to businesses owned by party leaders or their families, in-laws or old friends.”
Spurred on by investigative journalismst reportsMany people in Hungary have been grumbling for years about the wealth of people like Lorinc Meszarosonce a penniless pipefitter from Mr. Orban’s home village, who is now one of the richest men in the country.
Last month, however, what Fidesz has long dismissed as politically motivated rumors was given credibility by someone deep within the system – Peter Magyar, once a senior executive at state-owned companies and the former husband of a close ally of Mr Orban.
Mr. Magyar said Partizan, an independent news channel that ‘a few families own half the country’.
In a Facebook post, Mr Magyar turned his fire on Mr Orban’s son-in-law, Istvan Tiborcz. “What’s your secret?” Mr. Magyar asked. “At the age of 37 you have 100 billion, a lot of hotels, banks, fund managers, a lot former valuable state property.” (The number he was referring to turned out to be forint, the Hungarian currency, which would be about $280 million).
Then Mr Magyar asked: “How much in total have you received in government loans or subsidies to build your portfolio?”
Mr Tiborcz could not be reached for comment. In response to questions from Magyar Hang, an independent conservative weekly, on his father-in-law’s role in his success and whether he had received government grants or loans, Mr. Tiborcz said he “did not want to participate in political battles.”
On Friday, Mr Magyar drew thousands of people to an anti-Fidesz rally in Budapest and announced that he was forming a movement, Stand Up, Hungarians!, to resist the “corruption and nepotism” of the party of Mr Orban.
The vast wealth of a few Fidesz-linked magnates in Budapest is just the most visible aspect of a loyalty reward program that extends beyond the capital to towns and remote villages such as Nyirmartonfalva.
The approved grant application for the ‘treetop path’ was submitted by the mayor, Filemon Maholy, a businessman who ran for Fidesz in the last local elections in 2019, defeating the incumbent Socialist.
Mr Maholy has managed to secure EU funding for a range of projects in addition to the walkway. Strangely enough, given the way he cut down the trees near that structure, he also managed to secure a $126,000 grant for a tree planting program.
Before that, he received $130,000 for what he launched as a project to boost tourism through the construction of a guesthouse built next to his sprawling home on the edge of the village. Recently the guesthouse had no guests and no staff.
The flow of European money to Hungary has slowed in recent years because of Mr. Orbán’s disputes with Brussels over the rule of law, minority rights and other issues. Before the row, Hungary was the third-largest net recipient of money from Brussels, according to the Center for European Policy, a German research group.
The money helped transform previously neglected areas such as Nyirmartonfalva, which residents say is now a better place to live than before Orban came to power.
The outside wall of the village hall is covered with plaques showing how money from Brussels has paid for solar panels, sewer pipes, road works and other improvements. The local kindergarten also received money.
However, no one celebrates the treeless treetop walkway.
Zoltan Palfi, a Swedish Hungarian who lives in the village, said he was stunned when he first saw it. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. “I thought it might be a landing site for Elon Musk’s spaceship.”
The mayor, Mr. Maholy, is not happy with such ridicule.
Petra Magyar, another local resident, said Mr Maholy had threatened to take away her job as a social worker on the village payroll after she posted a smiley face under a Facebook post that gently joked about his walkway.
Ms. Magyar kept her job, but found another one in a nearby village.
“It was a beautiful place before he cut down all the trees,” she said. “Now we have a long bridge in the middle of nowhere.”
When Mr Hadhazy, the lawmaker, first raised the issue of misused EU money last year, Mr Maholy initially fought back, saying in an interview with a Hungarian television station that there was “never a requirement” to cut trees have for the treetop path. .
But lately, Mr. Maholy has been laying low. When a Times reporter visited the village hall, the mayor’s assistant said an interview was not possible because the mayor was away on business. Mr. Maholy arrived in his car a few moments later and rushed into his office.
Later that day, seeing reporters in the abandoned boarding house, the mayor stormed out of his house next door, shaking with anger and shouting across Budapest’s Chain Bridge, an iconic structure whose costly recent renovation by the opposition-controlled government of Budapest capital has led led to Fidesz accusations of corruption.
“Look for the money there, not here,” the mayor shouted.