Profit for silence: this is why the German industrial and political elite cooperates with PM Orbán

Real investigative journalism is rare in Hungary, but Direkt 36 is one of the flagships of such Hungarian media outlets. They published an article about the interconnectedness of the German automotive industry and the Orbán-government, from which it is clear how they serve the interests of Audi or Mercedes and, in return, these companies use their influence to edge off criticism towards PM Viktor Orbán in the German political elite. Details below.

According to Direkt 36, the leader of a big German automotive company revealed at a reception in Frankfurt that he has the private number of Péter Szijjártó, minister of foreign affairs, and he can call him anytime, provided the problems are connected to one of their Hungarian factories. He added that it happened once that even PM Viktor Orbán helped “them” out in 2015 during the Volkswagen emissions scandal, during which

he represented the interests of the automotive companies

in the European Council and, thanks to that, the relevant new regulation was full of loopholes. That is not surprising if we take into consideration that almost 13 pc of the Hungarian GDP comes from the German automotive industry and its suppliers, so it is good to be in a good relationship with them.

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Direkt 36 talked with dozens of diplomats, analysts, and business leaders about the issue and summarised their findings in 5 important topics.

The German mentors of PM Viktor Orbán

When Orbán started his political career, his first ally in Germany was the liberal Otto Graf Lambsdorff. However, when he changed his political agenda and became conservative in the mid-90s, Helmut Kohl became his greatest mentor. Kohl taught him many things about politics, but Gerhard Schröder defeated him in 1998. Therefore,

Orbán could not develop good relations with Berlin, so he changed his focus to the conservative southern German states (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg)

where Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Bosch have their headquarters.

PM Viktor Orbán’s foreign strategy

Apart from the official communiqué, PM Viktor Orbán sees Hungary as the centre of the Russia-Germany-Turkey triangle. Furthermore, they should be aware of what leaders think in Beijing and Washington as well. However, according to a high-ranking US government official, Orbán thinks that, materially, Hungary depends on Russia and Germany the most. He also added that the USA only had values which Hungarians also have.

The new pact between the German automotive sector and the government

According to Direkt 36, the Hungarian government thinks that the jobs the German automotive industry creates in Hungary are indispensable. However,

they try to expel German capital from other sectors, for example, the media.

Since the automotive companies get tremendous allocations, they do not protect other German companies, for example, the Deutsche Telekom’s Hungarian interests in 2012. And that is how county newspapers and the biggest Hungarian news portal, Origo.hu, went to pro-government oligarchs in the last few years.

Furthermore, even though Orbán wanted to boost the Hungarian economy with loans, he accepted the denial of the German government about the plan and promised to keep the state budget in balance. His calculations were correct because the German government appreciated the step.