In the East of Europe, creating oligarch Power, or the Power that creates oligarchs. EU funds reinforce the phenomenon. It is time to put an end to that, says Boris Kálnoki from Budapest.
Nearly 300,000 Czechs are demonstrating this month against their Prime Minister Andrej Babis. He is also one of the richest men in the country. How was he so rich? He was already in the Communist System, and as a member of the party – Manager of the Czechoslovak state-owned foreign trade company Petrimex. On his advice, Petrimex founded another company, Agrofert, that then obscure Swiss investors, has acquired old school friends, says Babis. He soon thereafter became the sole owner. He bought the media, publishers, and went into politics.
Tax fraud allegations, suspicion of subsidy fraud and the suspicion of unlawful use of EU cohesion grants, be brought with him in his time as Finance Minister and Prime Minister in the context of The Czech public Prosecutor’s office determined since the beginning of June.
Money = Power
Babis embodies the way in the East and South-East Europe policy is made. Money is Power, who wants has money and who does knows that you need to save you also money. For example, to buy media.
After the system change, understood as the First and best of the turned-Communists. From state and party assets assets on dark Due to private, the new Rich were the old Communists, and they used the money to for years as the new social Democrats to retain Power – such as in Romania or Bulgaria.
Is powerful in politics and the economy and the unpopular: the Czech Republic’s Prime Andrej Babis
After you ascended new parties that defined themselves as bourgeois or conservative (such as the Fidesz of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary) learned to quickly like the rabbit to be running. They created their own oligarchs, by awarding state orders to followers, strongly seasoned with EU-subsidies. We are in Hungary, our own Schiller, the oligarchs, the popularly as the “national gas fitter teur” called Lörinc Mészáros. Earlier, he had a small company dealing with gas lines. He was also an old friend of Orbán. Today, he is – as Babis is the second richest man in the country.
There is a difference to Babis: Czech has the Power, Mészáros, however, has no Power, and knows his place, he owes Orbán. Political ambition among its beneficiaries Orbán does not tolerate. His childhood friend, Lajos Simiscska tried it once. He was the money man of the party, until he became estranged with Orbán. Now he is gone from the window.
The Problem with the EU cohesion Fund
All the same, In us oligarchs do not determine the policy, but the policy is determined by the oligarchs.
A root of the oligarchs-the Evil of the EU cohesion Fund. The basic idea in Brussels: this money is the economic level of the poorer countries is the richer countries, therefore “cohesion”. And with this convergence, a convergence of values will be strengthened: democracy, free market economy, the rule of law.
In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, has seen the but closer and found that a considerable part of these funds are often spent on infrastructure projects and, finally, West European corporations in the flow of have the Know-How, the competitiveness and the capacity to win the tenders. It is, therefore, at least in part, money that is given to the East, but from there to the West flows back.
In Hungary, the policy of the oligarchs: Prime Minister Viktor Orban
In this respect, the emergence of the Central and Eastern European oligarchs-is also an attempt to keep this money in the country plague partly. Targeted politically loyal have been, at least in Hungary by the government, Big-business people built up disproportionately often, large state orders. Orbán speaks of “Neo-mercantilism” – that was the economic history of the stage in Europe, in the domestic industries behind protectionist tariff barriers were established. It is, therefore, if you will, a kind of “Patriotic corruption”.
EU-money rain just stop
I don’t like it, and I don’t think it serves the long term, the emergence of a competitive economy, if the energies of the decision-makers are all geared to get subsidies. The EU itself seems to have now decided that the whole idea of values-convergence works in the next budget, not the poorest countries will be promoted, but those that occur politically correct, such as refugees are.
Let us take the EU Money but turn off completely. It is a means to make Brussels more important than it needs to be, and distorted economic and political structures in many member countries. We in Central and Eastern Europe have been digested almost to the West, admittedly thanks in part to these funds. But the time has come to cut the cord. And to develop a culture of entrepreneurship, Innovation and courage are rewarded, not greed for power and political loyalty.
Boris kálnokys, Born in 1961, reported as a Hungarian correspondent, based in Budapest for the daily newspaper “die Welt” and other German media.