You have to reach into your pocket a lot if you want real estate in the Budapest agglomeration – we show you where the most expensive ones are

“Hadhazy can get in,” said Nyírkarász, the mayor of Fidesz, who previously confessed to the Fidesz representative of the region

In the corruption case closed by the police, József Szalmási testified that parliamentarian Sándor Kovács manipulated one of Nyírkarász’s public procurements for the sake of his friend and blackmailed him so that the company he chose would build the village’s farmers’ market.

Fidesz mayor of Nyírkarász, József Szalmási he told the police that Sándor Kovács a member of parliament from Fidesz called him in and told him that his friend’s company had to build the town’s market, otherwise they would not receive the EU money they had received.

According to 24.hu, the police still ended the investigation after three years. They investigated because it turned out that Kovács’s friend’s company had won one billion forints worth of public procurement in the region in a few years, and Ákos Hadházy filed a complaint.

The closure occurred despite such findings:

“From the public procurement documents, it was established that the municipalities of seven settlements located in a limited geographical area and the association (the Jót s Jól a Szatmári Kistérségben Egyesület, which is still managed by the wife of Sándor Kovács) selected and invited the same six economic companies to implement their investments with few exceptions for tendering, of which, without exception, the tender of GÉ-65 Mérnökiroda Kft., which mostly applied alone, was selected as the winner,

the simultaneous and joint existence of which facts may point to the coordinated behavior of economic actors, and an agreement restricting competition may raise the suspicion of a crime in public procurement and concession procedures”.

During the investigation, telephones were tapped and witnesses were interviewed, among them József Szalmási, who is also running as a Fidesz candidate in the municipal elections this year.

It is particularly interesting that the mayor confessed to Kovács at the police, he said that

the member of parliament manipulated one of Nyírkarász’s public procurements for the sake of his friend and blackmailed him so that the company he selected would build the village’s farmers’ market. The village eventually received HUF 50.5 million in EU funds.

The police also stated that the commission of the crime is not ruled out by “the result of a part of the procedural acts undertaken”, but “the extent and depth of the coordinated behavior or control aimed at the preparation of tenders and the selection of the companies carrying out the investments, and the persons participating in it are not excluded” they are sufficiently precise, pointing to an act or a person, and such data could not be obtained during the procedure, even despite the extensive evidence and the use of a hidden device”.

According to Hadházy, even in this final decision, there is evidence that “Sándor Kovács from Fidesz should have been in prison a long time ago.”

József Szalmási gave a brief statement to 24.hu, who said:

“Even though 24.hu is working here, they can’t do anything anyway. Not the police, not Hadházy, not you. Hadházy can get him in.”

In any case, he and Sándor Kovács are still on good terms, and he said about his statements to the police: “Maybe I was drunk then.”