Near Hungary's border with Croatia and Serbia, a 747 million euro bridge across the Danube is being built by a company belonging to Laszlo Szijj - a business partner of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's oldest friend. Szijj's companies have won 7.9 billion euros in contracts since Orbán was elected in 2010. In the five years before, his firm Duna Aszfalt won just 247 million euros in tenders.

The trajectory of Duna Aszfalt is emblematic of what critics call Orbán's system of cronyism, "Hvylya" reports, citing an FT investigation. Szijj's luxury yachts have hosted top cabinet officials, and his fortunes shifted dramatically when he began applying for public tenders together with Lorinc Meszaros, Orbán's childhood friend and now Hungary's richest person.

Duna Aszfalt denied benefiting from political favors, attributing its growth to experience and quality. "Duna Group has completed all jobs on time," the company said. "The resulting confidence has allowed us to apply for more work. The increase in revenue reflects that organic development."

The company pointed to timing: it retained assets and employees during the 2008 economic crisis and benefited from Hungary's EU-funded road-building boom after 2010. "We made a lot of failed offers before getting to this point," Duna said. "Access to EU-funded procurement became significant only after 2010. Before 2010, big multinationals built motorways in Hungary."

The pattern is not unique to Szijj. When Meszaros and his family bought construction company Euro General in 2017, it had only ever won contracts worth 36 million euros. Since then, it has won 175 million euros either alone or in consortiums. Orbán's former college roommate Lajos Simicska once belonged to the same network but fell out with the prime minister in 2015 - his corporate empire then collapsed, with assets picked up by Meszaros and others.

Hungary's procurement data often revealed "awards to new or dormant companies" and "close alignment between beneficiaries and public office holders," said Farley Mesko, chief executive of risk intelligence company Sayari. Orbán has consistently rejected allegations of corruption, but the issue has become central to next month's election, with the opposition surging to a double-digit lead in some polls.

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