A Takeover in the Colony

The article presents Hungary's public procurement system as a battlefield where foreign companies are advancing while Hungarian businesses are pushed aside. It points to the recent exclusion of one of Lőrinc Mészáros's companies from a tender for allegedly submitting an "disproportionately low bid." A Dutch-French company then emerged as the winner.

The same pattern, the article says, appeared in a smart-meter tender, where another Mészáros-linked company was eliminated so it would not interfere with an anticipated German victory. The writer says this is only the beginning. Highway construction and other sectors, the article argues, will follow the same course: foreigners will sweep the market while Hungarians suffer and go bankrupt, as Bayer Construct recently did.

The article frames the issue in sharply nationalist terms, contrasting the treatment of foreign and Hungarian companies. It warns that "the foreign is beautiful, the Hungarian stinks" and says the foaming, polluted Tisza will wash away Hungary's freedom struggle.

Its political conclusion is equally stark. Hungary's sovereignty, it declares, ended on April 12. If Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government made a mistake, the writer says, it was failing to establish the Sovereignty Protection Office in 2010 with the powers now held by the "neo-ÁVH." The measure, in this view, should have prevented the "Hegedűs lieutenants" from opening the castle gate.