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HATC SAMPLE EDITION:
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7th February, 2025
OLAF investigating chateau adoption scheme
The EU anti-fraud office OLAF is launching an investigation into what Csaba Molnár termed the “Orbán cabinet’s chateau scam”, the Democratic Coalition MEP announced on Facebook on Thursday.
Parliament passed a bill presented by Transport and Construction Minister János Lázár on the “adoption of chateaux”, in 2023, under which the government would transfer some state-owned mansions, manor houses and chateaux to private control.
In exchange new owners must undertake to upgrade, maintain and operate the properties while ensuring that the public collections contained in them must be open to the public for at least 300 days a year.
Molnár said this amounted to transferring state properties to “Fidesz billionaires for zero forints,” Molnár alleged.
He added that these properties had earlier been upgraded using EU funding, taking “Fidesz theft” to a new level.
OLAF began the investigation as a result of Molnár’s complaint last autumn.
Although Lázár’s first proposal was vetoed by then-president Katalin Novák in December, 2023, Parliament approved an amended version last June. Based on this the government can invite bids for 47 properties.
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Sources regularly consulted, with abbreviations used in text: Népszabadság (N); Magyar Hírlap (MH); Világgazdaság (VG); Napi Gazdaság (NG); Magyar Nemzet (MN); Népszava (Nsz); Kossuth Rádió news (KR); nightly TV news (TV).
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