Orbán's official residence: luxury overload?
During the change of government last week, Hungary's new prime minister, Péter Magyar, gave a video tour of the interior of the official residence of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – a converted Carmelite monastery – and several ministries. Magyar drew attention to the excess luxury on display, including an array of prized museum pieces.
Symbol of hubris
The Orbán governments missed a huge opportunity, Válasz Online explains:
“The Carmelite monastery will not become the Hungarian 10 Downing Street. It will not be the building in which better or worse prime ministers hand over the keys and incoming and outgoing heads of government hold press conferences on the street in front. It will not become the symbol of a stable democracy in the midst of constant change. This is sad in a way, because Hungary desperately needs such symbols. ... And the Orbán system was in no position to create them. ... The Carmelite monastery became a symbol of hunger for power, hubris, isolation and a style of governance that bordered on autocracy.”
Total disregard for the common good
The problem is not the government buildings, writes Népszava:
“The comments sections on social media are not full of praise for the exquisite taste of the former regime, but rather of criticism for the self-indulgent debauchery of the ousted politicians. This would not have been the case if they had been more modest in their private lives instead of spending billions on building themselves castles, zooming around in cars worth millions [of forint], and travelling endlessly around the world in yachts and private jets. ... What really annoys people is not how pompous some of our public buildings are, but the feeling that these architectural wonders were built by our insatiable former leaders for themselves, and not for the common good.”