Spain's far-right Vox admits that bank owned by Orbán's billionaire friend provided loan to fund their election campaigns

The Spanish far-right party Vox has admitted to El País that Hungary's MBH Bank provided a loan of €9.2 million (around HUF 3.6 billion at current exchange rates) to finance its 2023 parliamentary and municipal election campaign. The information was confirmed to the newspaper by the party's spokesman, Pepa Millán, who justified the loan from the Hungarian bank by arguing that they were not able to secure a loan from Spanish sources.

Several sources in Vox's management confirmed to the newspaper that MBH Bank had provided the party with the loan in two instalments. The first instalment was €6.7 million and the second €2.6 million. The party added that the loan had been repaid in full.

The newsletter of the investigative portal VSquare was first to report that, according to the Spanish newspaper El País, a Hungarian bank close to Viktor Orbán's circles had granted the loan to the Spanish party.

Vox announced in July that it would leave the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament and would join the Patriots for Europe group instead. The latter was founded by Fidesz along with the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the Czech ANO.

This is not the first time that a Hungarian financial institution has financed the campaign of a foreign far-right party. MKB Bank, which was integrated into MBH, previously supported the 2022 presidential election campaign of Marine Le Pen with a loan of €10.7 million.