Join the Direkt36 supporters’ group and get insight into investigative journalism! Details \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n Just weeks before Orb\u00e1n\u2019s trip to Riyadh, Italian media reported that the Hungarian prime minister wanted to move the Supercoppa Italiana final from Riyadh to Hungary. According to\u00a0la Repubblica<\/a><\/em>, Orb\u00e1n offered \u20ac8 million (around 3.2 billion forints) per match. The paper mentioned Budapest as a possible venue but also hinted\u2014something later echoed by other outlets<\/a>\u2014that Orb\u00e1n might want to host the games in his home village, Felcs\u00fat, at the Pancho Arena next to his house. Though\u00a0la Repubblica<\/em> attributes the \u20ac8 million offer to Orb\u00e1n personally, context suggests it was likely via the Hungarian Football Federation. (Since 2022, the Italian Super Cup finals have consistently been held in Riyadh.)<\/p>\n Neither Orb\u00e1n\u2019s new spokesman J\u00e1nos M\u00e1t\u00e9, nor the Prime Minister\u2019s Cabinet Office, nor Bal\u00e1zs Garamv\u00f6lgyi responded to our questions about the purpose of the Riyadh trip, who organized it, or why it was kept secret. They also ignored our inquiry about whether the Italian Super Cup was discussed. In response to our inquiry, the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) stated only that \u201cno official request has been submitted to the MLSZ regarding the organization of the Italian Super Cup final.\u201d Orb\u00e1n\u2019s visit to Riyadh is yet another example of how his government and Hungary\u2019s pro-government elite are quietly building increasingly close political and economic ties with the Arab world\u2014often with little transparency.<\/p>\n In December 2023, the author reported in VSquare\u2019s newsletter<\/a> that Mohamed Alabbar\u2014the Emirati businessman behind the Burj Khalifa\u2014is planning to build a luxury district and skyscraper in Budapest. He was already in advanced talks with the Orb\u00e1n government.<\/p>\n In recent years, several hotels and luxury properties in Budapest\u2014including ones linked to the governing elite\u2014have been acquired by Arab investors. Meanwhile, the Orb\u00e1n government has actively courted Middle Eastern investment, from Qatar (previously connected to a potential Budapest airport deal) to the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n In 2022 and 2023, Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 visited Qatar several times to discuss LNG gas imports. In January 2025, Orb\u00e1n himself traveled to the Emirates to negotiate business deals, including oil and gas deliveries.<\/p>\n Back in 2022, Direkt36 also published an investigation\u2014part of an international collaboration\u2014into Hungary\u2019s honorary consuls. It revealed<\/a> that several were linked to criminal cases such as perjury, money laundering, and even financing Hezbollah. No such allegations have surfaced in the case of Garamv\u00f6lgyi.<\/p>\n As the Orb\u00e1n government\u2019s ties with the Arab world have clearly intensified in recent years, at the start of 2025 we filed a public information request with the Prime Minister\u2019s Cabinet Office. We asked for a list of Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s foreign trips to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia between 2010 and early 2025. We also requested the names of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s negotiating partners and the official purpose of each visit.<\/p>\n The government acknowledged the Riyadh trip in this list.<\/p><\/div>\n The Cabinet Office only partially fulfilled the request. They provided no information about the purpose of the trips or Orb\u00e1n\u2019s counterparts. And although we specifically asked about visits to Gulf countries, the list they sent included unrelated trips to Europe, Asia, and South America. \u201cThe data you requested can be found in the list below,\u201d they wrote\u2014yet the list was clearly an incomplete list of Orb\u00e1n’s foreign trips. For instance, several known visits, such as Orb\u00e1n\u2019s trips to the United States, were missing.<\/p>\n Notably, the list did include a visit to Riyadh on October 25, 2022\u2014but this stood out. All the other trips on the list had been previously reported either on government websites or on Orb\u00e1n\u2019s social media. This one hadn\u2019t. In fact, the Cabinet Office, by acknowledging the trip, effectively confirmed the existence of a visit that had never before been publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n As part of our request, Direkt36 also asked the Cabinet Office to clarify whether Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Gulf trips were funded with public money and accompanied by government officials or public servants. We also asked that any privately funded, personal trips\u2014such as vacations\u2014be labeled as such. The Cabinet Office made no indication that the Riyadh visit was a private one.<\/p>\n It is usually Orb\u00e1n\u2019s vacations and personal travels that go unreported by the government. For instance, in 2019, a reader of Index submitted a photo of him vacationing in St. Petersburg<\/a>, and in early 2025, news of a family trip to India<\/a> reached Hungarian media only through the local Indian press.<\/p>\n Apart from confirming the date, the Cabinet Office gave no further details about the Riyadh visit. However, Direkt36 was able to uncover more from sources familiar with details of the trip. According to them, Orb\u00e1n left Budapest on the morning of October 25, 2022, and returned the same evening. The Saudi hosts were specifically instructed by Orb\u00e1n\u2019s team not to release any information or take any photos of the visit.<\/p>\n Sources familiar with the details say that Orb\u00e1n met privately with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The conversation took place one-on-one.<\/p>\n A source familiar with the workings of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s inner circle said that it is usually J\u00e1nos Nagy, a longtime close aide, who informs the Cabinet Office and key officials about the prime minister\u2019s undisclosed trips. However, the source did not reveal what kind of briefing\u2014if any\u2014was given regarding the Riyadh visit. Since Orb\u00e1n was accompanied by his bodyguards, it is very likely that J\u00e1nos Hajdu, the director of Hungary\u2019s Counter Terrorism Center (TEK), and the agency\u2019s top leadership were also informed about the trip.<\/p>\n State Loan for Hungarian\u2013Saudi Projects<\/strong><\/p>\n According to several sources familiar with Hungarian\u2013Arab relations, Hungary\u2019s ties with Saudi Arabia are not particularly important, and there are no known major projects or investments. Data from Hungary\u2019s Central Statistical Office shows that in recent years, exports to Saudi Arabia ranged between 43 and 79 billion forints (roughly \u20ac110\u2013200 million), while imports stood between 12 and 42 billion (about \u20ac30\u2013105 million).<\/p>\n The Hungarian\u2013Saudi Intergovernmental Joint Economic Committee is not led by high-ranking officials either\u2014on the Hungarian side, it\u2019s headed by a state secretary, and on the Saudi side, by a deputy minister.<\/p>\n According to the Cabinet Office\u2019s response, prior to the secretive 2022 visit, Viktor Orb\u00e1n had only traveled to Saudi Arabia three times: in October 2011, March 2014, and January 2015.<\/p>\n In 2020, the Hungarian government opened a \u20ac600 million credit line\u2014worth just over 200 billion forints at the time\u2014via Eximbank to promote economic cooperation with Saudi Arabia. Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 stated then that \u201cdue to water scarcity, Saudi Arabia faces a unique challenge. Developing water infrastructure presents serious opportunities for Hungarian technology and engineering expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n We asked the Foreign Ministry how much of the credit line has been drawn and what Saudi\u2013Hungarian investments have actually materialized. We received no response.<\/p>\n Illustration by Direkt36, Photo by the Prime Minister’s Office<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Prime Minister traveled to Riyadh in October 2022 with a small entourage. According to Direkt36, even within the government only a few people knew about the trip, the purpose of which is still not entirely clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":12128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-telex.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[806,259,805],"ppma_author":[549],"aioseo_notices":[],"fimg_url":["https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Kepernyokep-2025-05-27-101148.jpg",1366,913,false],"authors":[{"term_id":549,"user_id":23,"is_guest":0,"slug":"szabolcs","display_name":"Szabolcs Panyi","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Panyi-Szabolcs.png","url2x":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Panyi-Szabolcs.png"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Panyi","first_name":"Szabolcs","job_title":"","description":"[:hu]Az ELTE magyar nyelv \u00e9s irodalom szak\u00e1n diplom\u00e1zott. 2013 \u00e9s 2018 k\u00f6z\u00f6tt az Index.hu politika rovat\u00e1nak volt szerkeszt\u0151je \u00e9s \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00f3ja. 2017-18-ban Fulbright-\u00f6szt\u00f6nd\u00edjjal az Arizona State University-n tanult oknyomoz\u00f3 \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00e1st. 2018 \u0151sz\u00e9n csatlakozott a Direkt36-hoz, ahol f\u0151k\u00e9nt nemzetbiztons\u00e1gi \u00e9s k\u00fclpolitikai vonatkoz\u00e1s\u00fa t\u00f6rt\u00e9neteken dolgozik. Mellette a vars\u00f3i k\u00f6zpont\u00fa VSquare.org visegr\u00e1di r\u00e9gi\u00f3s t\u00e9nyfelt\u00e1r\u00f3 \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00f3i platform egyik alap\u00edt\u00f3ja, 2023-t\u00f3l a k\u00f6z\u00e9p-eur\u00f3pai oknyomoz\u00e1sok vezet\u0151je. N\u00e9gyszer nyert Min\u0151s\u00e9gi \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00e1s\u00e9rt d\u00edjat \u00e9s szint\u00e9n n\u00e9gyszer Transparency-Soma-d\u00edjat, 2018-ban \u00e9s 2021-ben pedig az Eur\u00f3pai Sajt\u00f3 D\u00edj d\u00f6nt\u0151se volt.[:en]Szabolcs graduated from E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University where he studied Hungarian language and literature. Between 2013 and 2018, he was an editor and political reporter at Index.hu. At Arizona State University, he studied investigative journalism on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2017-2018. In the fall of 2018, he joined Direkt36, where he mainly works on stories related to national security and foreign policy. Meanwhile, he helped launch VSquare.org, a Warsaw-based cross-border investigative journalism initiative for the Visegr\u00e1d region, where he is currently leading the Central Eastern European investigations. He received the Quality Journalism Award and the Transparency-Soma Award four times each, and he was also shortlisted for the European Press Prize in 2018 and 2021.[:]"}],"tag_names":[{"name":"Mohamed bin Szalm\u00e1n","slug":"mohamed-bin-szalman"},{"name":"Viktor Orb\u00e1n","slug":"orban-viktor"},{"name":"Sza\u00fad-Ar\u00e1bia","slug":"szaud-arabia"}],"category_names":[{"name":"Orb\u00e1n and the economy","slug":"orban-es-a-gazdasag"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12124"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12131,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12124\/revisions\/12131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12124"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=12124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWe also contacted the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Hungary about Orb\u00e1n\u2019s visit, but they did not respond either.<\/p>\nDeepening Ties with the Middle East<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Official Trip or Private Visit?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Kepernyokep-2025-05-27-101732-e1748333810865.jpg\")