A pro-Orbán “propaganda” group close to Reform UK was awarded £57 million in dividends from Hungary’s state oil company in the days before Sunday’s election. 

At its annual general meeting on 10 April – two days before Hungary’s parliamentary elections, which ousted prime minister Viktor Orbán – national oil company MOL decided to award HUF 241 billion (£576.4 million) in dividends to its shareholders.

Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a think tank and training school associated with the outgoing Orbán, is set to receive around HUF 24 billion (£57.4 million).

MOL dividends are typically declared in late April, and Hungarian media reports have questioned the timing of this year’s decision – immediately before an election in which Orbán was widely expected to lose. It has been highlighted that, in both 2014 and 2018, the company’s annual general meeting was organised for after the country’s parliamentary elections.

MCC was gifted a 10 percent stake in MOL by Orbán’s government in 2020, at the time worth more than $1.3 billion. Using this wealth, MCC has promoted Orbán’s ideas via events featuring high-profile politicians from across Europe and America, and has been called a “propaganda mouthpiece” of his regime by campaigners.

These campaigners have also warned that MCC may use its latest MOL dividends to fight a war of attrition against the new prime minister.

“They are filling their reserves, and they are letting the Hungarian people pay the bill,” said Kenneth Haar of the transparency campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory. “Surely this cannot be the last word. With the fortune they have amassed, they are lining up once again to use money they have taken as a weapon against their adversaries in the future.”

The incoming Tisza government led by Peter Magyar, which received 77 percent of the vote, has vowed to investigate and recover state funding granted by Orbán to MCC.

MOL told DeSmog that the timing of the AGM was unrelated to the date of the election, and that dividends to all shareholders were awarded “irrespective of institutional background”. MCC did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.

Russia and Reform

MOL derives much of its income from selling Russian fossil fuels.

In a press release about the dividends, MOL Group chairman and CEO Zsolt Hernádi said the company has “consistently worked to diversify the region’s energy supply, as greater flexibility in pipelines, suppliers, and decision-making is always better.”

However, a recent report by the Center for the Study of Democracy found that 93 percent of Hungary’s oil imports came from Russian crude, up from 61 percent in 2021, amounting to a 15 percent income boost in 2025 to £1.3 billion.

Several figures associated with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK are among MCC’s closest allies. Reform politician Matthew Goodwin speaks regularly at MCC conferences, including headlining an event yesterday (13 April) in Budapest.

During the event, Goodwin appeared to confirm that he continues to work for MCC as a “visiting fellow” – a role that reportedly pays up to €10,000 a month.

Reform’s head of policy James Orr, who is a director at the MCC-funded Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation, spoke at MCC’s summer festival last year alongside techno-authoritarian entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

MCC also hosted U.S. Vice President JD Vance earlier this month as he campaigned for Orbán’s re-election.

In his 16-year rule, Orbán used the state to attack press freedom, LGBT and abortion rights, fair elections, and asylum seekers, while opposing EU sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. 

His opponent Magyar has promised to dismantle the “industrial-scale” corruption instigated by Orbán’s regime.

Magyar has also pledged to “recover the state assets granted to the MCC and end the practice of political network-building with public funds.”

MOL told DeSmog that “Decisions regarding dividends are made each year at our Annual General Meeting in April – the date stipulated in the law. Dividends are paid to all shareholders on equal terms, irrespective of shareholder structure or institutional background. As a publicly listed company, MOL treats all shareholders in line with the same principles.”