Key actors — tap for context
Péter Magyar
Hungarian prime minister and leader of the Tisza party, which ended Viktor Orbán's fourteen-year rule in the 2026 election
Why here: He announced a possible complete shutdown of Paks and says that after the crisis it will be necessary to "name those responsible"
More info →
MVM
Hungarian state energy group and owner of the subsidiary that operates the Paks nuclear power plant
Why here: According to RTL's calculations, it paid Balásy's communications company 16.8 billion forints and sent 4.8 billion to Ferencváros football club
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Paks
Hungary's only nuclear power plant, usually covering roughly a third of the country's electricity consumption
Why here: Because of the record-low Danube, according to the prime minister, only the last turbine is still supplying power from it
More info →Gyula Balásy
Hungarian entrepreneur whose companies have dominated the state communications market since 2018
Why here: His New Land Média received 16.8 billion forints from MVM over four years for communications and organizational tasks
Gábor Kubatov
former deputy chairman of Fidesz, president and since July 2026 also executive director of Ferencváros football club
Why here: The club he leads received 4.8 billion forints from the state-owned energy company
More info →Ferencváros
Hungary's most successful football club, based in Budapest
Why here: Recipient of sponsorship money from state-owned MVM at a time when no investment was made in the pumping station near Paks
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Viktor Orbán
Hungarian prime minister from 1998 to 2002 and 2010 to 2026, leader of Fidesz
Why here: Under his government, no new pumping station was built near Paks - that is the core of Magyar's criticism
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Lőrinc Mészáros
Hungarian entrepreneur whom Forbes lists as the richest Hungarian
Why here: The prime minister publicly called on him to contribute voluntarily to managing the energy crisis
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Fidesz
Viktor Orbán's party, in opposition after the 2026 election
Why here: It rejects responsibility and says the crisis was caused by personnel purges in the new government's Paks and MVM
More info →Tisza
Péter Magyar's party, which won the 2026 parliamentary election
Why here: Its government is dealing with the energy crisis and promises to name those responsible for the unrealized investments
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Átlátszó
Hungarian investigative outlet focused on the use of public money
Why here: In 2017 it revealed that MVM had sent 508 million forints a year earlier to the pro-government organization CÖF
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Danube
the second-longest river in Europe, a source of cooling water for Paks and Romania's Cernavodă
Why here: Its record-low level is the immediate trigger of the crisis around Paks
More info →New Land Média
communications and advertising company of entrepreneur Gyula Balásy, one of the main suppliers of state communications in Hungary
Why here: According to RTL's calculations, MVM paid it 16.8 billion forints over four years
What RTL Calculated
According to RTL television news's calculations, MVM paid New Land Média Kft. 16.8 billion forints between 2022 and 2026 for communications and organizational tasks. Ferencvárosi Torna Club received 4.8 billion forints in support in the same period. The club's president is Gábor Kubatov, the former deputy chairman of Fidesz, who lost both his parliamentary seat and his party post after the election defeat, but consolidated his position in the club's leadership and in July of this year also took over as executive director. Telex ↗ Telex ↗The Pumping Station That Was Never Built
Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced over the weekend that, because of the critically low water level of the Danube, it may be necessary to completely shut down Paks, which could last as long as a month. The government called on the public and major industrial consumers to save voluntarily. Portfolio ↗According to Magyar, neither a shutdown nor electricity imports worth another ten billion forints would have been necessary if a new pumping station had been built near Paks under Orbán's government, because the problem of the river's falling water level had long been known, he said. According to the prime minister, MVM "spent hundreds of billions on advertising, sponsorship and sports clubs on political orders." Telex ↗
This is a political statement by the prime minister, not an independent technical assessment. As we wrote in a previous article, the technical core of the problem is that the intake level of the pumps at Paks sits above the current river level, so as the water level falls the pumps can no longer reliably draw the required cooling water.
Also read: The record-low Danube shut down a nuclear reactor in Romania. Hungary's Paks faces the same risk
Who Gyula Balásy Is
Balásy is one of the best-known suppliers of state communications in Hungary. His companies New Land Média and Lounge Design have held a dominant position in this market since 2018 and are associated with the so-called blue poster campaigns. According to a calculation by the 444 portal, citing Forbes, the government spent a total of 197 billion forints since 2016 on advertising and campaigns in two related procurement areas. The contracts were awarded by Minister Antal Rogán, the coordinator of state communications, and Balásy's companies reportedly won them with virtually no competition. Forbes.hu ↗ Just the State Debt Management Center concluded a total of 284 contracts with the consortium of his two companies between 2021 and 2026. Telex ↗In May of this year, after Fidesz's election defeat, Balásy broke down in tears in an interview for Kontroll and said he did not want to leave the country and would hand over his assets to the state. He offered 100 percent stakes in Lounge Design, Lounge Event and New Land Média, as well as investment certificates in three private funds. The prime minister rejected the offer at the time, but in July the G7 website wrote about a reversal - the state could still take over after a review of the company. Telex ↗ G7 / Telex ↗
The State Lottery Terminated His Contract
On Wednesday, August 5, the state lottery company Szerencsejáték Zrt. announced that it had terminated its contract with Balásy's Lounge Group and was overhauling its entire agency model. Instead of the previous arrangement, it promises a "professionally grounded" operation. Index ↗ Telex ↗ HVG ↗For the story described above, this is a shift. Until now it was a dispute about one company and one missing pumping station; now a second major state company is cutting ties with Balásy. The question of whether the state will take over his companies after the review, or whether it will remain with the offer rejected in May, now gets a third option - that the contracts will simply disappear and the companies will be left with little of the clientele that kept them alive. It is not yet clear who Szerencsejáték will place in the vacated spot. 444 ↗
Confusion in Public Media
- Index summarized what is happening at public television in 10+1 points - from the shutdown of the M1 channel to Magyar Péter's warning. Index ↗
- HVG links the intervention in public media to the approaching presidential election, which is expected to take place soon. HVG ↗
The transition is not smooth on the new government's side either. On the same day, public broadcaster M1 dismissed editor-in-chief Gábor Hajdú - within a day of appointing him. Hajdú had previously worked as a spokesman for Mészáros's group and, according to his own account, was dismissed with the same reasoning with which he had been hired shortly before; he speaks of a "virtual lynching." 444 ↗ Népszava ↗
This is a separate case, not a continuation of the MVM affair - it is linked only by the environment in which it is taking place. But it shows that the ties between state institutions and people from the orbit of the previous government are not being untangled straightforwardly, and that even the new administration's personnel decisions run into the same past. Fidesz-friendly Magyar Nemzet also had an opportunity to comment. Telex ↗ Magyar Nemzet ↗
A Pattern Nearly Ten Years Old
This is not the first time MVM has been involved in a dispute over financing politically aligned recipients. In 2017, the investigative outlet Átlátszó found that the state company had paid 508 million forints a year earlier to the Civil Összefogás Fórum organization, which organized pro-government "peace marches." Átlátszó ↗ When the portal obtained the contract documents a year later, it wrote that 433 million of that went to four short image videos, and that the same support also financed a demonstration in Brussels against the European Union and George Soros. Átlátszó ↗Átlátszó interpreted this at the time as crossing the then-existing line - according to the portal, companies in public ownership had not previously financed direct political communication. Átlátszó ↗
What Fidesz Says About It
- The pro-regime Magyar Nemzet mocks its own government in its "Napi abszurd" column: according to it, watering with a can and a wheelbarrow is allowed, but a hose is not Magyar Nemzet ↗
- Lázár János received only the minimum wage for July because of absences from parliament Népszava ↗HVG ↗
The daily Magyar Nemzet, close to the now-opposition Fidesz, argues exactly the opposite. After Tisza carried out personnel purges in Paks and MVM, it says the professional capacity of both institutions declined, and Magyar is pointing to his predecessors precisely because he knows he cannot handle the crisis. Magyar Nemzet ↗
The same daily also reached for a Slovak argument. It recalled Robert Fico's statement that Slovak nuclear power plants must never end up like the one at Paks, and argues that a similarly low Danube does not cause an energy crisis in Slovakia, Austria or Germany either. Magyar Nemzet ↗
Part of the Fidesz camp goes even further. At a Saturday rally in Szeged, Dobbanjon founder Elizabeth Tóth claimed that Paks no longer needs to be restarted because the fuel for it is produced by Russia, which is under embargo. The plant's communications director Antal Kovács rejected this - no other fuel is needed for a restart. Népszava ↗
Status at Deadline
- Magyar published a draft from 2022 according to which Orbán's government already knew then that the Hungarian power system was on the edge. This shifts the case from the question of "where did the money go" to the question of "what was not bought with it" Index ↗24.hu ↗
- Security expert Tarjányi called the 868-billion energy program outdated in its approach: "It's almost not it" Index ↗
- MOL agreed to the conditions - the fate of two million tons of oil was decided Portfolio ↗
- The forint keeps weakening and investors are pressuring the Hungarian stock market even in the evening Portfolio ↗Portfolio ↗
- Budapest's absolute temperature record fell in Újpest at 41.6 C and 250 hectares burned in a single day - a burden on the same system Magyar is talking about Index ↗Népszava ↗
- "The next economic competition may be fought over water - even in Hungary," Portfolio writes Portfolio ↗
- According to 24.hu, Paks was milked dry down to the last filler. The portal writes that in the middle of summer the plant is standing "with its pants down" because the state owner has for years been draining profit from the company in dividends instead of investing in safety and maintenance. 24.hu ↗
- Magyar Péter shifted responsibility onto his predecessors. He stated that the Hungarian energy system is so vulnerable because of neglect and poor decisions by past governments. 444 ↗
- He also announced the first tenders for wind power plants - with the stipulation that the projects will have to include a mandatory state stake. Telex ↗
- The bill for the energy crisis has already arrived. According to Portfolio, despite savings, the country is burning through large sums in the evenings. Portfolio ↗
On Monday evening the Danube level near Paks was stagnating and, according to the prime minister, electricity was coming only from the last turbine. In the same appearance Magyar also called on Lőrinc Mészáros to contribute voluntarily to crisis management, like several hundred other companies - a call he linked to the Rose d'Or yacht worth thirty billion forints, anchored off the Italian coast. Népszava ↗ According to HVG, the Danube's level could rise over the weekend. HVG ↗
On Wednesday, August 5, Portfolio said the last Paks turbine was still generating steadily, but the portal also wrote that a full shutdown of the plant could be hanging by a thread - the heatwave in Hungary peaks on Wednesday and Thursday. Portfolio ↗ Portfolio ↗ On that day, Index wrote that a quick solution may have been found for the cooling-water problem. Index ↗ Magyar Nemzet, meanwhile, is attacking from the other side - it claims that a member of Tisza's government would shut Paks down permanently. Magyar Nemzet ↗
Limits of This View
The MVM payment figures are RTL's editorial summary, not the result of an audit or a state-authority investigation, and we did not find a statement from MVM or Balásy himself by the time this article went to press. Sponsoring a sports club by a state-owned company is not illegal in itself either - the disputed point is the scale and timing, not the institution as such. The claim that the pumping station would have prevented a shutdown comes from the prime minister, who has a direct political interest in pointing to his predecessor, and is not backed by an independent technical assessment.The same applies in the other direction. We draw on several Hungarian media outlets - Telex, Népszava, Átlátszó, HVG, G7, Forbes, Portfolio and Magyar Nemzet. Most of them have long been critical of Fidesz, while Magyar Nemzet stands on the opposite side of the dispute - so we have included both perspectives, including the Fidesz objection about personnel purges.
What Hotinfo Is Watching
- Will Paks shut down completely, or will the forecast weekend rain lift the Danube?
- Will MVM or Gyula Balásy comment on the figures RTL published?
- Will Magyar deliver on his promise to "name those responsible" — will there be a review of MVM's decisions on infrastructure near Paks under Orbán's government?
- After the review, will the state take over Balásy's firm, stick to the offer it originally rejected, or will the contracts simply fall away without a takeover — as after Szerencsejáték?
- Whom will Szerencsejáték Zrt. entrust with its communications instead of Lounge Group?
- Will Lőrinc Mészáros contribute to managing the crisis, as the prime minister publicly urged?
