The Spanish prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the far-right Vox over the suspected irregular financing of the party. It is suspected that Vox has received more than €4.5 million (around 1.8 billion forints) from a bank linked to the Hungarian government, which is a violation of Spanish party funding regulations, Euronews reports.
Last September Vox admitted to having received a €9.2 million (around HUF 3.7 billion) loan from MBH Bank, which is owned by Lőrinc Mészáros, (Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán's childhood friend and now the richest man in Hungary) which was to be used for their 2023 parliamentary and municipal election campaign. At the time, the party justified taking out a loan from a Hungarian bank on the grounds that they were not able to secure a loan from a Spanish institution.
Vox's congressional spokesman Pepa Millán said the case was insignificant and accused the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which brought the case to light, of trying to divert attention from its own corruption.
Spain's Vox is a member of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, which was set up by Viktor Orbán. The party's leader, Santiago Abascal, is also the president of the EP party group, while its vice-president is Kinga Gál of Fidesz.
In the meantime, the Hungarian government has been increasingly vocal in its defence of Hungarian sovereignty, with – for example – the Sovereignty Protection Office pointing out on its website that Brussels "is funding propaganda campaigns on issues that are fall under national jurisdiction, and which have an effect on national sovereignty in the deepest sense".
But the case of Vox is not unique: it was found in 2022 that the National Rally, the party of French far-right politician Marine Le Pen, had taken out a loan from MKB, also linked to Lőrinc Mészáros, in the previous year. Since then, the party has repaid the €11 million loan.
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