Hungary’s former culture minister detained for embezzling public funds

Hungarian prosecutors said on the 29th that the former Minister of Culture during the government of Prime Minister Orban was detained on suspicion of misappropriating funds from the National Cultural Fund (NKA), which is supervised and managed by the Ministry of Culture.

According to Reuters, Hungarian police raided the offices of the Young Democrats League (Fidesz) in July, where the web server was located. The operation was related to an investigation into suspected embezzlement of public funds and other criminal offenses in the distribution of NKA subsidies.

Several people have accused the NKA of a lack of transparency in the process of distributing billions of forints in state subsidies, and some of the artists and organizations that received the subsidies are related to Fidesz.

Balazs Hanko, Hungary's former Minister of Culture and current member of parliament, was detained at the State Administration of Taxation and Customs late at night on the 28th after the National Assembly voted to lift his immunity as a member of the parliament. Hanke denies any wrongdoing.

The Hungarian prosecutor stated in a statement on the 29th that Hanko was detained on suspicion of misappropriating funds and was being questioned as a criminal suspect.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar also posted on Facebook on the 29th, saying, "Yesterday was an important day. After decades of lies, millions of Hungarians experienced real regime change for the first time and what it means to be equal before the law."

Magya emphasized that corruption and misuse of public funds during the administration of former Prime Minister Orban had caused Hungary to lose economic output equivalent to 8% to 10% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years.