Pancho Arena, football stadium in Felskurt, Hungary.
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Rob Schmitz/NPR
To outsiders, the Pancho Arena, a massive football stadium built to seat 4,000 fans, seems out of place in the small village of Felssut, Hungary.
The population of this village, located about an hour’s drive from Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is so much that it will be able to fill only half of the stadium. But the open-air architectural gem made of curved wooden beams, which extends upward dramatically and resembles a cathedral, was not built in any village. Felsőts is the hometown of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and his family’s weekend home is located across the street from the stadium, which bears the nickname of Ferenc Puskás, Hungary’s most famous football player of the 1950s.
Hungary goes to national elections on Sunday, with Orban facing a double-digit deficit in the polls, despite a last-minute rally in Budapest on Tuesday with US Vice President JD Vance. The vote could end Orban’s 16-year grip on power and reshape the country’s role in Europe.
The opposition leader, Peter Magyar, a former insider to Orbán’s Fidesz party, has highlighted the Orbán government’s corruption and the country’s poverty in his speeches. According to Transparency International, an organization that aims to fight corruption, Hungary is the most corrupt state in the European Union. The European Union has halted billions of dollars in funding to Orban’s government over an alleged attack on the bloc’s principles of democracy and equality.
NPR contacted Orbán’s spokesperson for comment about the corruption allegations, but he did not respond. In the past, Orbán has denied corruption allegations.
At a rally this week, Magyar told supporters, “There’s more to it than just ruining it, stealing it, and turning it into the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe for those in power.”
The stadium in Felschut, along with the adjacent football academy, cost an estimated more than $200 million to build, and for political observers such as Sándor Lederer, it is a prime example of that corruption.
Lederer runs a group called K-Monitor, an anti-corruption watchdog that maintains a public database of government spending. His work has been used by the European Union and he has received a fellowship from the Obama Foundation.
He regularly takes people to see the stadium to demonstrate how Orbán’s leadership has drained vital investment from the country.
“Taxpayers’ money was money that did not go into the national budget because it is tax exempt,” Lederer told reporters at the site. He pointed out that the money for these projects often went to Orbán’s family and friends, who have become very wealthy.
“They were all getting tax breaks on it, and that money would have ended up in the national budget and could have gone to hospitals, schools and things that would have benefited Hungarian society a little more.”
“You can clearly see where the money is missing,” Lederer said.
Part of Puskás Akademiya stops at The Vale Valley Light Railway.
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Rob Schmitz/NPR
A short walk from the stadium is a train station for the 3-mile narrow-gauge railway that connects Felshut to the nearby village where Orbán built his family estate: the Puskás Academia stop on the Val Valley Light Railway.
It cost $3 million to build and included $2 million in funding from the European Union. The proposed ridership for the line was 2,000 people per day, but annual usage has barely reached that level. Now trains run only on weekends.
In Alaksut, a nearby village, Akos Hadhazy led another tour.
Hadházy, a member of parliament, rented a bus and brought more than 60 residents from Budapest here to see what he calls “Orbán-land”.
Hatvanpuszta Castle, which was the property of Archduke Joseph of Habsburg 150 years ago, is a manor owned by Orban’s family in Alkasut. It was a protected monument, but then Orbán’s father bought and demolished the structure. Later he built a multi-storey mansion and complex in its place.
There is also a golf course, owned and operated by Hungary’s richest man, Loriňák Mészáros, who grew up with Orbán in Felsőts.
Tourists climb a staircase to view the grounds of Viktor Orban’s family estate.
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Mate Halmos/NPR
Some of those who were with Hadazy climbed a ladder to look over the wall that surrounds the Orbán family palace.
One by one, they peered across the landscaped and pool-filled grounds and beyond – at the neoclassical mansion of their prime minister.
Julia Molnar, 27, came down the stairs and shook her head. His voice was shaking with anger as he described what he saw.
“It’s infuriating, and I’m so glad that people are finally brave and aware enough to come here and really make an effort to show up and see themselves and not let the media give them the perspective they should have on this,” Molnar said.
He lamented the opulence of his Prime Minister’s residence when so many people in his country are so poor.
Hadházy pointed out that the Orbán family mansion, rail line and football stadium have now become part of Hungarian discussion and public opinion. He calls it a gift to those who want to oust Orbán.
