The recipient is the Hungarian Tourism Association Foundation (MTSZA). On paper, it is supposed to cover cooperation in the tourism sector, but according to HVG it is in fact one of the key support bases of the tourism-hotel circle around Ráhel Orbán, the former prime minister's daughter, and her husband István Tiborcz — and is closely linked to the state Hungarian Tourism Agency. The contract runs from June 1 to the end of the year, meaning a little over half a year. This was not an isolated case: HVG had already pointed to a similar contract between the lottery and the foundation back in May last year. HVG ↗
The lottery money is just a small slice of a bigger picture. According to the portal 24.hu, the foundations, which serve Fidesz's political goals, once again had an extraordinarily successful year in 2025 — the last full year of Orbán's government: their assets grew by 77 billion forints (about 190 million euros), bringing their combined assets to 694 billion forints (approximately 1.7 billion euros). 24.hu ↗
The biggest gainer was what 24.hu describes as the crown jewel of this network — the educational institution Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC). Its assets grew last year by nearly 61 billion forints (around 150 million euros), roughly half of that from dividends of the companies MOL and Richter, whose shares MCC received as a gift from the state. Since 2011, according to 24.hu, MCC's assets have grown 24-fold; the collegium today operates in 18 buildings it owns and 13 rented buildings in Hungary, Brussels, and cities in Transylvania. By contrast, the KESMA media holding, which covers the pro-government press, lost nearly 10 billion forints due to a bad year for the Mediaworks publishing house. 444 ↗
It is precisely these transfers that are now becoming a target of the new government. The cabinet of Prime Minister Péter Magyar, whose party Tisza defeated Fidesz in the elections, submitted a proposal a few weeks after taking office to abolish the so-called KEKVA — public-benefit foundations that manage assets. These are to be liquidated by August 31. At the same time, the new government has asked the companies MOL and Richter to postpone the payment of this year's dividends, citing the planned restructuring of the foundations. 24.hu ↗
KEKVA were established in 2020, when the then Fidesz two-thirds majority transferred state shareholdings, valuable buildings, and large sums of money into foundations. Critics describe it as one of the largest privatization waves since the fall of communism — several universities thus came under the management of privately run foundations funded from public sources, and it was in this way that MCC grew to its current size. 444 ↗
It should be added that these figures come from published financial statements, which were processed by independent Hungarian media (HVG, Népszava, 24.hu, 444); the foundations concerned present themselves as public-benefit institutions, and no court has yet ruled on any possible misuse. The political coloring — that is, the link to the Orbán family and to NER — is an interpretation by these editorial outlets. Nevertheless, for a Slovak reader this is a telling glimpse into what is happening to assets linked to the departing power.
