The former radical nationalist, now rather centrist Jobbik party’s participation in next year’s parliamentary election has become “doubtful”, group leader János Volner told a press conference on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Hungary’s State Audit Office (ÁSZ) accused the party of accepting over 330 million forints (over EUR 1m) in illegal financing during the first six months of this year. Early in October, ÁSZ also filed a complaint to the prosecutor, saying that Jobbik was hindering its review through failing to provide documents.
In response to the charges, János Volner said his party has accepted no questionable funding from organisations or private individuals. He said that in light of the charge the party was expecting a fine of 660 million forints, which would deplete the party’s campaign budget. The group leader insisted:
What happened today equals to the first steps of banning and clearing away Jobbik
The State Audit Office, “which is now headed by a former Fidesz lawmaker”, has barred Jobbik from submitting the requested data ahead of the deadline, then accused the party of keeping it secret, Volner insisted. The body refused to receive the documents on paper afterwards, and made its conclusions without knowledge of them and established the total “randomly”, he said.
On Wednesday, Jobbik suffered another major political blow as Hungarian authorities announced criminal charges against Jobbik MEP Béla Kovács for his close ties to Russian intelligence services, espionage, financial fraud, and use of false personal documents. Read more about the case here.
via hungarymatters.hu and MTI; photo: Tamás Kovács – MTI