Hungarian Tycoon Who Made Fortune in Porn Weighs Election Challenge to Orban
Hungarian Tycoon Who Made Fortune in Porn Weighs Election Challenge to Orban
(Bloomberg) -- Hungary’s Gyorgy Gattyan, who made his fortune with the adult streaming site LiveJasmin, is sizing up a challenge to Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s parliamentary elections.
In a string of Facebook campaign videos published this week, Gattyan says he wants to use his IT expertise to “hire” candidates for each of Hungary’s 106 constituencies ahead of elections due around April. They would join him in what he offers as a digital transformation of health care, education and government.
The 51-year-old owner of Luxembourg-based Docler Holding has been transforming his company into a diversified group with interests ranging from venture capital and real estate to IT over the past several years, making him one of Hungary’s richest people.
If Gattyan were to deploy his ample funds for an independent parliamentary campaign, that could potentially complicate the opposition’s bid to end Orban’s rule after more than a decade. A fragmented group of parties has managed only this year to band together against Orban’s administration, which has been a constant source of conflict for the European Union.
Peter Marki-Zay, the opposition’s joint prime ministerial candidate picked in primaries last month, expressed concern about Gattyan’s potential entry into the field against Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.
“We can only overcome the Fidesz party with full collaboration of the opposition,” Marki-Zay told RTL television. “Any action that aims to divide the opposition serves Fidesz’s interests.”
In a trailer for an interview with the Friderikusz Podcast due to air in full on Thursday evening, Gattyan said he was still in time to transform his movement into a fully-fledged party that can contest elections and “break with the past.”
“The odds show we could even win,” he said.
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