HATC SAMPLE EDITION:    Politics & Foreign Relations    Economic News    Business News    Other News of Interest    All stories	11th June, 2025 Magyar and Vitézy blame Lázár for railway chaos Tisza Party leader Péter Magyar and transport expert Dávid Vitézy have both strongly criticised Construction and Transport Minister János Lázár following major disruptions on Hungary’s railways over the weekend. Magyar condemned Lázár for cutting state railway company MÁV’s maintenance budget by more than half while spending hundreds of millions on a self-promotional poster campaign, calling it a “North Korea-style” PR move. Despite passenger chaos and severe delays, MÁV posters touted improvements with such slogans as “Travel should not only be cheaper, but also better”. Magyar called for Lázár’s resignation, accusing him of halting rail developments worth over a thousand billion forints and creating dangerous conditions. Vitézy pointed to Lázár’s excessive control as a root cause, citing a 2023 directive requiring all state-owned companies, including MÁV, to obtain prior ministry approval for every procurement. He said this centralisation delayed essential repairs, including those that could have prevented the recent collapse. According to Vitézy, basic parts are often ordered only after months of bureaucratic back-and-forth. He also revealed that procurement is run by János Bada, a close associate and former classmate of Lázár, who heads the centralised procurement centre and owns a media outlet that recently attacked critics of Lázár. Vitézy concluded that the weekend meltdown shows why the minister is directly responsible for MÁV’s dysfunction. 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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