Hungarian government claims it had no knowledge of MBH Bank's loan to far-right Vox party

The government was not aware that the bank owned by Lőrinc Mészáros (PM Orbán's billionaire friend) had lent money to the Spanish Vox party, János Fónagy, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy, said in response to a written question submitted by DK MP Ágnes Vadai, 24.hu reports.

Ágnes Vadai originally sought to find out from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán about the role he played in a Spanish radical party receiving a loan from a Hungarian bank for its election campaign last year.

The Spanish far-right party Vox admitted to El País at the end of September that the Hungarian MBH Bank, owned by Lőrinc Mészáros, had provided a €9.2 million (roughly HUF 3.6 billion) loan for their 2023 parliamentary and municipal election campaign. The information was confirmed to the newspaper by party spokesman Pepa Millán, who justified the loan by claiming that they had been unable to secure a loan from Spanish sources. MBH Bank provided the loan to the party in two installments. The first tranche was €6.7 million and the second €2.6 million. The party added that the loan had since been repaid in full.

In response to Vadai's question, János Fónagy wrote that the government was not aware of a "potential" loan from MBH Bank.

“The decision about a potential loan provided by a commercial bank to a Spanish applicant referred to in the question was taken by a commercial bank – as it would be in any other case – on a purely business basis. The Hungarian government had no role in this decision and has no information about it.”

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