Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has no savings set aside, his assets include his house in his home village Felcsut and an apartment in Budapest, according to his latest asset declaration.

Orban still has HUF882,000 (€2,475) in outstanding debt from a 2002 loan worth HUF20mn taken out with his wife. At the end of January 31, Hungarian politicians have to submit their yearly asset declarations. The scheme has not changed since the first democratic elections in 1990.

The whole procedure is merely a formality as MPs providing false, untrue information are not sanctioned. The declarations are handwritten, scanned, and uploaded to the parliament’s website. The declaration of relatives remains undisclosed. NGOs have called for a wide-scale overhaul of the process.

Transparency International says that a central electronic database should be set up to create more transparency and that asset declarations should be audited by the tax office. They also called for genuine sanctions for providing false content.

The annual asset declaration gives ammunition to the press for a few days. Opposition politicians are scrutinized by Orban loyal media, which remains silent when it comes to how government MPs fared during the year. Independent media on the other hand gives a much more detailed account of the wealth of politicians.

The reports show big disparities among politicians.

Unlike the prime minister, Antal Rogan has pocketed HUF158mn in 2020 thanks to an IT invention under his name, lifting assets of the cabinet’s chief communication officer to HUF822mn. In his 27-year carrier, Rogan managed to save HUF2mn every month in his 27-year political carrier.

MPs salaries were raised by 11% last year. The gross monthly income of HUF1.1mn translates into a net HUF733,700.

Rogan was the architect of the residency bond scheme running between 2013 and 2017. Under the programme, foreign nationals who bought securities from a licensed agent backed by the residency bonds could apply for fast-tracked permanent residency in Hungary and the Schengen Zone.

The threshold for the purchase was set at €250,000, which was raised to €300,000 later on. Hungary raised some €1.7bn from the sale of the bonds. Intermediary companies selling the bonds operated in offshore or tax-haven countries.

In comparison to the previous year, Hungary’s leading opposition party leader former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany increased his securities assets to HUF823mn. Security-backed loans grew to HUF214mn from HUF150mn.

He took out HUF55mn in dividends from his company Altus down from HUF238mn a year earlier. Gyurcsany has two properties, one in his hometown of Papa, in central Hungary, and one in Kotcse, a small rural town near Lake Balaton.