A $1.5 million roundabout from nowhere to nowhere shows the ‘Orbánist economy’

By Christian Edwards, CNN

Zalaegerszeg, Hungary (CNN) — The sign proudly announces that the roundabout near Zalaegerszeg in western Hungary was built with 500 million forints (about $1.5 million) of funds from the European Union.

The roundabout was built to service a container terminal on a new railway line that would help provide this landlocked part of central Europe with better access to the sea. Rather than having to pass through Budapest, Hungary’s capital, goods arriving from the Adriatic coast would transit quickly through the west of the country into Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and beyond.

But there’s a problem. Years after the roundabout was built, there’s still no railway. Instead, the roundabout lies unused in a field, waiting for the Hungarian government to build the railway that would make it useful.

Critics of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán say EU-funded construction projects like these are a monument to the economic system his government has built over its 16 years in office. Orbán’s electoral success, they say, has combined relentlessly demonizing the EU – painting it as a decadent, liberal, corrupting force in Hungary – while happily accepting vast amounts of money from it.

Much of that money came from initiatives intended to help the bloc’s poorer, more recent members – many of which were once part of the Warsaw Pact – to catch up with their richer neighbors in the West. But, ahead of a pivotal parliamentary election Sunday, opponents are asking what Hungary has to show for all this investment, pointing to a string of what they cast as vanity projects, and unfinished or unnecessary construction projects.

“Orbán was the ultimate rent-seeker in the 2010s of the European Union. That was a conscious strategy,” Krisztián Orbán (no relation), the founder of Oriens, an investment firm in the region, told CNN. He also highlighted the government’s success in drawing down its allocated funding, by comparison with its neighbors, adding that Orbán “was able to bring in a humongous amount of EU money.”

The roundabout near Zalaegerszeg, first reported by the Hungarian investigative site Atlatszo, is one of tens of thousands of projects in Hungary that have received EU funding since Viktor Orbán came to power. Tibor Navracsis, the regional development minister, told Hungary’s parliament last year that the EU had financed 52,000 projects in the country during the 2014-2020 budget period.

István János Tóth, director of the Corruption Research Center Budapest, who is from Zalaegerszeg, said the roundabout was a prime example of a “white elephant” – a construction project that is expensive to build, and often to maintain, but which provides little value.

“Without the European funds, Orbán couldn’t have established this sort of system,” Tóth told CNN.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International has ranked Hungary the most corrupt country in the EU. CNN has asked Hungary’s foreign ministry and the prime minister’s office for comment. The Hungarian government typically denies allegations of corruption or accuses its opponents of being corrupt themselves.

Work on the roundabout began during the current EU budget period, which runs until 2027. Having purchased a patch of land, Metrans – a logistics company that operates in the region – was planning to build a container terminal to attach to the new railway, also scheduled for construction.

At a ceremony in 2021, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó laid the foundation stone of the new terminal. By the end of 2023, the local municipality – with the help of EU funds – had built the roundabout that was to support logistics around the terminal, Zoltán Balaicz, the mayor of Zalaegerszeg, told CNN.

But when CNN visited the site in April, there was no evidence that construction of the planned railway had begun. Balaicz said the project was still in the public procurement phase. Whoever wins the procurement contract will have more than two years to build the track, Atlatszo reported, meaning the railway – if built – may not be ready until 2029.

The roundabout near Zalaegerszeg is not the only unfinished or unhelpful project in Hungary to have received EU funds. David Pressman, the former US ambassador to Hungary, said during his term that construction projects did not always live up to their billing.

“Quite a view from another of Hungary’s EU-funded ‘forest canopy walkways’ in Hatvan,” he wrote on social media in 2024, posting photos of himself standing on a walkway – with no forest in sight.

Other examples, reported by Hungarian media, include a “lookout tower” which is meant to provide a viewpoint for tourists, but stands at less than a meter tall.

Critics say that Hungary is dotted with such projects, often financed by the same institution Orbán rails against.

“Rather than grappling with an economy that has fallen apart, Orbán points to marauding outside forces… who supposedly pose threats to Hungarians and Hungarianness,” Pressman told CNN.

“It is much easier for the leader of the country ranked the most corrupt in the European Union to talk about ‘civilizational struggles’ than to explain the extraordinary wealth his family has accumulated while his people and his economy suffer,” he said.

‘Interference’ claims

The issue of EU funds is playing a significant role in campaigning for Sunday’s parliamentary election.

Since 2022, the European Commission has withheld funds to Hungary over concerns about its democratic backsliding and judicial independence. As of last year, around €18 billion ($21 billion) of funds remain blocked – representing around 10% of the country’s GDP. Late last year, members of the European Parliament again raised concerns over Hungary’s breaches of the rule of law, as well as corruption and “misuse of EU funds.”

Krisztián Orbán, the economist, said the stream of EU funds over the first decade of Orbán’s term meant “he was able to get away with a lot of things, including corruption, including disregard of public services, because he was able to ensure steadily improving livelihoods to people who were not used to that.” Now those EU funds are blocked, that bargain is coming apart, he said.

Orbán and his allies, including US Vice President JD Vance, who traveled to Budapest this week to endorse the prime minister, have accused the EU of interfering in Hungary’s election over the bloc’s withholding of funding. The Commission maintains that EU members must uphold the rule of law to receive funds.

Péter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party, has pledged to free up the EU payouts by allaying the bloc’s concerns about Hungary’s democratic backsliding. He has campaigned heavily against corruption, accusing Orbán and his acolytes of enriching themselves while the country has grown poor. Still, Magyar would face a stiff challenge to meet the EU’s demands and unlock some funding before an August 31 deadline.

Tisza has held a double-digit lead over Orbán’s Fidesz party in most polls for more than a year. Although a victory for Magyar would spell the end of what corruption expert Tóth described as Orbán’s “bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you” approach to the EU, Hungary will still require financial help from Brussels – including in Zalaegerszeg.

Balaicz, the mayor, said that once the Hungarian government builds the planned railway, his municipality will then be able to build a second roundabout to aid logistics around the container terminal. That will cost another 954 million forints (about $3 million), he told CNN – also from an EU fund.

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