Poland's Tusk mocks Viktor Orbán as scandals involving his inner circle mount
Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland (photo: Getty Images)
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk sarcastically commented on reports of the detention of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's brother.
The Polish prime minister highlighted two high-profile incidents involving Orbán's inner circle: the detention of his brother a few days earlier and the discovery the previous day of $20 million that a former Hungarian government official had buried in a forest.
"Dear Victor, I've always been an admirer of your creativity, but now I must say I'm impressed as never before," Tusk wrote sarcastically.
On November 13, Hungary's National Office for the Recovery and Protection of State Assets announced large-scale coordinated investigative operations in several locations across the country.
The operations were carried out as part of a criminal investigation involving Miklós Seszták, who served as Minister of National Development in Viktor Orbán's government.
During the searches, law enforcement officers discovered large amounts of cash hidden in various locations: buried in a forest, concealed in agricultural and storage buildings, and inside a residential property. Some of the money was kept in a large safe installed in a secret location.
In total, over two days of searches, authorities seized 5,071,632,000 Hungarian forints (more than €13.5 million), €2,658,350, and $1,257,100.
In addition, on November 11, a court in Budapest ordered the detention of Áron Orbán, the younger brother of the former Hungarian prime minister, and his partner for one month. They are suspected of helping Vietnamese nationals enter Western Europe illegally.
It recently emerged that Viktor Orbán had been an informant for intelligence services in his youth, and his reports may be stored in Russia.
The former Hungarian prime minister is also being considered for the position of UN Secretary-General, with reports identifying those backing his candidacy.
