Dávid Vitézy, Hungary's newly appointed transport minister, announced the discovery of what he described as serious budget manipulation involving 286 billion forints in undisclosed transport expenditures. The revelation, posted to social media, marks one of the first major accountability findings since the government transition.
According to Vitézy's statement, the concealed expenses include over 170 billion forints in second-half motorway concession fees, nearly 90 billion forints for completed work on the Budapest-Belgrade railway, and additional costs for railway connections to battery factories. "These are already contracted, incurred items with binding commitments," Vitézy wrote, "yet they do not appear in the budget's expenditure side."
The minister characterized the omissions as deliberate. "They wanted to show a more favorable budget deficit before the elections," he stated. "This is fraud, the falsification of the budget." The claims echo Hungary's 2006 budget scandal, though from the opposite political perspective, when then-Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admitted to lying about economic conditions.
Vitézy indicated that both relevant ministries were aware of the discrepancies and are now attempting to shift responsibility to each other. The Finance Ministry and the previous Transport Ministry both operated under the prior administration's oversight, raising questions about coordination and accountability at the cabinet level.
The alleged concealment focused on three politically sensitive projects: the controversial motorway concession contract, connections to foreign-owned battery factories, and the Budapest-Belgrade railway—a flagship project closely associated with Hungary's economic ties to . Vitézy noted,
