In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that he has asked the Minister of Interior, Hungary’s secret services and the Minister supervising the National Tax Authority to individually investigate all Hungarian strands in the “Panama Papers” offshore scandal. People must see whether or not those with large amounts of capital are respecting the law, he said.
The Prime Minister said that major political plyers in Hungary are not part of this issue; Hungarian strands are more likely to lead to bankers. He added that although he does not wish to regard the issue in a party dimension, it is more likely that socialist financial assets are involved.
Concerning the acquisition of vehicles for the metro system, Mr. Orbán stressed that evidence pointing to corruption must be collected from the British authorities, and they must be investigated. “This will be a serious job for the police and the Prosecutor’s Office”, he added.
The Prime Minister said that having repaid the last instalment of the EU-IMF loan is a success story. Hungary is an exception to the European tendency, as it is not increasing its sovereign debt.
Regarding the amendment of legislation on referenda, Mr. Orbán said that some of the technical details of the current regulation are far from perfect, and therefore unexpected situations can arise. These weak points in the regulation could be rectified by approval of amendments proposed by the Government.