After his Fidesz party won a constitutional supermajority in 2010, Viktor Orban spent 16 years constructing what two researchers at Central European University describe as "a mafia state" - a system concentrating political power and illicit wealth in the hands of family members and loyalists. The machine was financed largely by the European Union itself.

The characterization comes from Balint Madlovics and Balint Magyar, who detailed the system's mechanics in Foreign Affairs, as "Hvylya" reports.

EU funds flowed through public procurements into Orban's political network, with connected companies winning over $30 billion in contracts between 2010 and 2025, according to the Financial Times. The scheme's most visible beneficiary has been Lorinc Meszaros, Orban's childhood friend, who went "from modest entrepreneur to Hungary's richest man" and is "widely believed to be acting as Orban's frontman, holding assets on the prime minister's behalf." In 2025 alone, Meszaros's fortune grew by approximately $1.5 billion - while Hungary's entire GDP increased by less than half that amount.

The regime used these resources to build a vast network of dependence. Compliant officials received lucrative positions, loyal oligarchs won state contracts, and local leaders were granted livelihoods tied directly to Fidesz. Those who resisted faced consequences: Orban "denied these opportunities to Fidesz's opponents and threatened to punish disloyalty from insiders by stripping them of their favored status."

The system extended beyond economics. Orban rewrote the constitution in 2011, filled the Constitutional Court and the Prosecution Service with loyalists, built a state-funded propaganda machine, and reshaped electoral laws in Fidesz's favor. The researchers compare him to "a mafia boss who decides the fate of the members of his immediate and adopted family" - a characterization Orban himself has referenced in a campaign ad depicting him as the crime boss from The Godfather.

"Hvylya" also covered how Orban's frozen EU funds became his rival's most powerful campaign weapon.