Something has changed since Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán was photographed in a restaurant in Rome with his wife and son. Viktor Orbán has since paid more than HUF 2 million (appr. €5,800, exchange rates as of 27 April) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for, the Ministry claims for the travels of his family members. However, documents proving the payments have not been released in response to K-Monitor's data request. 

After the trip to Rome, articles have regularly appeared about the circumstances of the use of the government plane. In addition to the outrage about the cost of the trips, the interest from the press is further justified by the facts that

• the government has still not explained the legal basis for the civilian use of government aircraft operated by the armed forces, and
• no data were provided on the maintenance of the planes and the real total cost of the trips. Based on inter-ministerial reallocations, this amounts to billions of HUF for the travel of government officials because of the large number of trips, but only a few million in related costs are admitted to the press.

The costs are spread over several ministries. Although investigative newspaper Átlászó has recently obtained that on-board wifi and supplies sometimes run into millions of HUF, the largest item (fuel costs) is not shown in the costs of official trips. After the Rome trip, Bertalan Havasi, Deputy State Secretary in charge of the Press Office of the Prime Minister, said, in response to a press request, that Orbán would pay for his family members' expenses himself, as has been his practice so far. 

pic: Viktor Orban's Facebook page

The Foreign Ministry's statement in the lawsuit regarding the flight to Rome revealed that the Prime Minister had paid HUF 631,610 (€1.688) for his family members’ travel. K-Monitor was not allowed to look at the document justifying the payment, as it was submitted to the court in a sealed envelope.

It was not revealed exactly whether this was for the expenses of Anikó Lévai, who travelled as part of the official delegation, or Gáspár Orbán, or possibly both of them, nor was it revealed on what basis the amount was calculated, or how it related to the costs of the family member's flight and possible accommodation costs. It is also controversial why Viktor Orbán paid this amount to the Foreign Ministry when the costs of the government plane sent directly to the Croatian island did not incur at the Foreign Ministry but at the Defence Forces. 

Since the trip to Rome, Orbán has regularly paid for the travel of his family members, unlike before

This January, K-Monitor asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send us copies of the documents certifying the payments made by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to the Ministry for the travel of his family members for the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, indicating the destination of the trip.

The reply states that "the travel expenses of family members travelling not as members of an official delegation have been booked as payments totalling HUF 2,167,185 (€5,792)", i.e. this amount was paid by Orbán for the travel of his family members. However, K-Monitor did not receive the requested documents, citing an earlier decision of the National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (NAIH), according to which a comprehensive, invoice-level audit of public bodies is not possible in the framework of data requests, as the audit of the invoice "falls within the competence of the bodies authorised to do so".

However, the Foreign Ministry was willing to present the amount paid by trip. This showed that the payment of more than HUF 2 million was in all cases for trips made since the trip to Rome. Although Bertalan Havasi said that the payment was made "in accordance with previous practice", no such payment was made between 2015 and 2021, since then reality has adapted to the spokesman's statement and in several cases such payments have been made.

The Cabinet of the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office, which are also involved in the Prime Minister's protocol and travel, have stated that no similar payments have been made to them.

Little is known about the actual total cost and nothing about the exact calculation of the payments. All we can rely on is a statement made by Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office at the weekly government press briefing, according to which Orbán does not have to pay for his wife’s travels, while the others are measured by the "price of a first-class air ticket". On what exactly the minister based this claim, when no such payment was made between 2015 and 2021, is not clear.

The government does not disclose the costs of maintenance either. Átlátszó reported on the costs incurred by the Ministry of Defence, while K-Monitor obtained the costs incurred by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the Heads of Government trips. Based on these, the costs of the trips mentioned above are comparable with the payments made by Orbán.

For the trip to Rome in 2021, the Foreign Ministry reported a total cost of HUF 2,909,844 (€7,776), the majority of which is related to airport services. It is therefore unclear based on what did Viktor Orbán pay HUF 631,000 for his family member's travel on the plane (when there were dozens of other government members on board). If this was for the cost of the actual operation of the plane, why did he paid it to the Foreign Ministry, which, according to their claim in the lawsuit, had only reported the costs of airport services.

Madrid and Paris: the Foreign Ministry presented this as two trips, at a total cost of HUF 9,337,241 (€24,953). The Ministry of Defence presented a cost of HUF 4.642.950 (€12,408) to Átlátszó (including on-board catering for the delegation at HUF 1,2 million (cca. €3,200)). It is not clear why a family member accompanied the Prime Minister on an official trip, where he met his far-right allies.

Paris: the trip included a visit to the UEFA Champions League final and talks with Marine Le Pen, the president of the French National Rally, whose election campaign was funded by a loan from the bank of Lőrinc Mészáros, billionaire oligarch and close friend of Orbán. In connection with the multi-day trip, the Foreign Ministry reported costs of HUF 19,613,911 (€52,417), including HUF 17 million (~ €45,000) for accommodation, and a further HUF 1,376,917 (€3680) was paid for the staff's stay abroad according to the Ministry of Defence. Nevertheless, Viktor Orbán paid the exact amount of HUF 100,000 for the family member's trip. According to the official statement, Orbán travelled to Paris for the Champions League final at the invitation of UEFA, from where he travelled on to Brussels.

No official cost data for the last two trips are available. For the trip to Tusnádfürdő, it is unclear if it was done with a government plane. However, in the case of the visit to the World Cup in Qatar, there were several trips by government aircraft. In addition to watching the semi-finals between Argentina and Croatia and then France and Morocco, there was an official diplomatic programme in Qatar, but before the final Orbán signed the agreement on the Azeri-Georgian-Romanian-Hungarian power line in Bucharest, from where he returned to Qatar. On this occasion, the Prime Minister paid HUF 350,000 for the family member's trip.

After the 2022 elections, Orbán's monthly salary was raised from HUF 1.5 million (€4,009) to HUF 3.5 million (€9,353) gross, the same as the salary of László Kövér, the speaker of the Hungarian parliament. The Prime Minister is also entitled to a gross MP's fee of HUF 1.3 million (€3474), so the payments for the trips have eaten up less than a month's salary.

Since the original publication of our blogpost in Hungarian, Orbán’s travelling habits with government planes once again became the centre of attention when a government plane on its way back from Cairo landed in Tuscany, where the Prime Minister has travelled for private reasons. Meanwhile, the National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information closed an investigation about information on the usage of military government aircraft as all involved government bodies denied possessing the relevant data. Finally, under a recent amendment to the law, military government aircraft can now be provided free of charge for public tasks.

A clearer picture in the case of trips by military government aircraft would be achieved by restoring the regular publication of the costs of these journeys, which until the mid-2010s covered the total cost of the journeys, including the costs of operating the aircraft. It would be even more important to have these trips organised by a publicly available set of rules, including rules for the travel of individuals who are not part of an official delegation and the assessment of trips in the capacity of party chair. If the public could find out exactly what rules are used for planning and accounting and who is responsible for them, then anyone could be assured that the trips are being carried out in accordance with the requirements of sound management of public funds. 

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