According to Slovenian and Hungarian media reports, business circles close to Fidesz, the Hungarian ruling party led by Viktor Orban, have invested 6.4 million euros to shore up extreme right-wing media in Slovenia and Northern Macedonia, both of which countries face elections in the near future.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has traditionally supported right extremist Slovenian former PM Janez Jansa (convicted on corruption charges but freed by the Slovenian constitutional court), and has extended political asylum for fugitive former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski. Orban may be trying to help plot their return to power.
Most of the money was transferred through purchasing advertisements and TV commercials, which is how the Orban Government sustains its own low-circulation media at home as well. The advertiser is Belfry, an Austrian construction company, indirectly owned by Hungary’s richest oligarch, a former pipe fitter, and Orban’s personal friend from his childhood village, Lorinc Meszaros. Some of it, then, made its way from Slovenia to North Macedonia.
Several individuals from the circle around Orban’s most important propaganda adviser, Arpad Habony, have obtained shares in both the Slovenian and North Macedonian media, according to Slovenian and Hungarian investigative journalists.
Viktor Orbán, Janez Janša, and Nikola Gruevski in 2017 (Photo: Nova 24 TV, Slovenia)
