Sex video or not, Orbán wanted Borkai in Győr

Fascinating new details emerged yesterday about the handling of the Borkai sex scandal that implicate the top Fidesz leadership, including the “boss,” Viktor Orbán.

To summarize the story that I covered innumerable times, Zsolt Borkai, the Fidesz mayor of the city of Győr ever since 2006, found himself in an untenable situation. A few days before the October municipal elections in which his victory was practically guaranteed, a video was uploaded to the internet which depicted a lewd sex scene on a yacht on the Adriatic. The devoted family man of the highest Christian values was caught having sex with prostitutes. After a confusing interlude during which the Fidesz leadership didn’t quite know what to do, the decision was made to keep Borkai in the race. Disappointed Fidesz voters remained at home, and Borkai, who normally won with an overwhelming majority, this time got only 646 votes more than a very weak DK candidate supported by all the opposition parties. Shortly after this less than illustrious victory, the Fidesz leadership decided that to allow the tarnished Borkai to remain mayor of an important Hungarian city was out of the question. He was forced to resign. Hence, the by-election to be held in Győr tomorrow.

Győr City Hall

The disclosure of a hitherto unknown, embarrassing scandal is a nightmare for political parties. It often happens that the party leadership is totally unprepared for what’s coming, resulting in a cacophony of discordant voices and actions. When the Borkai scandal made headlines, observers assumed that the Fidesz bigwigs had been unaware of Borkai’s affairs and that therefore, under the circumstances, days before the election, they couldn’t do anything else but allow Borkai to face the electorate. But it turned out that this wasn’t the case.

András Dezső of Index, who is one of the best investigative journalists in Hungary today, wrote an article revealing that the highest echelons of Fidesz, including Viktor Orbán, knew about the existence of the sex video as early as September 2018 — that is, a whole year before the election. All this came to light from Borkai’s testimony during the police investigation of the case currently underway.

It was during the weekend of May 20, 2018 that Borkai and his friends had their fun on the Adriatic. By the fall, he received a message from Ágnes Molnár, an MP and high Fidesz official in charge of the region, that Gábor Kubatov, the party’s director, would like to talk to him at a “safe location.” Eventually they met in a restaurant, at a time when they were the only customers. The whole meeting lasted only three or four minutes. Kubatov informed Borkai about the existence of the video and told him that it was likely that the video would emerge sometime prior to the municipal elections in 2019. However, he said, what one can see on the video is a “private affair” which poses no danger either for Borkai or for Fidesz. He told Borkai that Fidesz would not get involved and that he himself would have to take care of the mess he created.

Borkai was in a total panic. This was the first time he had heard about the existence of a video. He knew that photos were circulating, but he had no idea that one of the prostitutes also used her telephone as a video camera. He turned to several leading politicians in Fidesz, like Lajos Kósa and Máté Kocsis, for advice. In the spring of 2019, Borkai again talked to Kubatov, expressing his fear of the consequences of the video becoming public one day. Apparently, Kubatov assured him again that according to the “boss,” meaning Viktor Orbán, he should calm down “because if the subject becomes public in the election campaign, then the right-wing media will block the news.” In plain English, Orbán’s lackey media will not cover the story. A large part of the population will simply know nothing about it.

According to an anonymous Fidesz informant, the resulting chaos was Gábor Kubatov’s fault, although from Borkai’s description it looks as if Viktor Orbán also thought that, scandal or not, Borkai could take Győr, which was their overriding consideration. Kubatov, who began his working life as an auto mechanic, ended up as a top Fidesz leader who has been a “party director” ever since 2006. He was responsible for the huge Fidesz victory at the 2006 municipal elections when his name was associated with illegal voters’ lists. I read somewhere that he is considered to be the sixth most important man in the party. However, according to Fidesz informants, after the Győr fiasco, both he and his second-in-command, Ágnes Molnár, have been under a cloud.

If the report of András Dezső is correct, and my impression is that by and large it is, the real culprit is not Kubatov, who was just the messenger, but “the boss.” How could Orbán misjudge the situation so badly? Some people found it odd, as did Ildikó Lendvai (MSZP), that despite Fidesz’s knowledge of the sex video’s existence, Orbán insisted on his continuing as mayor of Győr. What does Borkai know about the top brass in Fidesz and how many illegal things did he do for them? Somehow I don’t think that the present police investigation, which was confirmed by Chief Prosecutor Péter Polt, will give us the answers.

Meanwhile the election tomorrow is extremely important for Fidesz’s political future. If they lose Győr, it will mean that, of the larger Hungarian cities, only Debrecen will remain a Fidesz stronghold. If the old Fidesz hand Csaba András Dézsi cannot convince the electorate that, under his watch, the city will not be a center of corruption as it was during Borkai’s tenure, then we will know that the problem the party encountered in Győr doesn’t have much to do with the sex scandal. The cause must lie elsewhere, perhaps in the arrogant Fidesz culture of which the electorate is becoming tired.

On the surface, Dézsi’s chances are very good. He has been a member of the city council since 1998 and has won his district with large majorities. He tries to present himself as a man who opposed Borkai’s leadership style, but I heard him defend the administration by claiming that he as a member of city council would have known about any shady business affairs if they existed. But they didn’t. It is also worrisome that he will not look into any possible past corruption cases because it is not the job of the mayor. Many people in Győr are put off by Dézsi’s insistence on being only a part-time mayor since he plans to continue his medical practice. Personally, I found him far too self-assured and arrogant. On the other hand, the opposition candidate, Balázs Pollreisz (MSZP), has been described as a “reluctant” candidate whose appeal is somewhat limited. Moreover, if elected, he would have to work with an overwhelmingly Fidesz city council.

An opposition victory in Győr would give an incredible boost to the opposition parties and would be an incredible blow to Fidesz. Mérce, in a long article, sought an answer to the question “Will Győr be another Vásárhely?,” referring the great opposition win of Péter Márki-Zay in Hódmezővásárhely, but at the end the author doesn’t dare to express an opinion on the matter. I myself don’t have enough “feel” for the place and the mood to predict a winner. But considering that Dézsi won his district in 2014 with 61.14%, in 2010 with 64.9%, and in 2006 with 54.82%, if this time if he wins by a much smaller margin, it will be a warning to Fidesz that life has changed, even in Győr.

January 25, 2020