The daily Magyar Nemzet has contacted the press department of the Democratic Coalition (DK) party with questions concerning party chief Ferenc Gyurcsany's asset declaration submitted in May 2022. The questions pertain to a section in the declaration that's rather hard to understand based on publicly available data, where Mr Gyurcsany listed more than HUF 446 million (roughly €1.1M) as a claim with a note "deposit and down payment for the purchase of an apartment."

Neither the ex-prime minister, nor any staffers at his DK party’s press office have responded yet, so we are still groping in the dark. It is unclear which of his properties Hungary’s former premier wants to part with, as the sum suggests that the apartment must be extremely valuable, the daily Magyar Nemzet writes, pointing out that

in his asset declaration, Mr Gyurcsany listed only a 50-square-metre property in a block of flats in Papa, western Hungary, and a 50-percent ownership in a property located in Kotcse, near Lake Balaton. The latter property is a detached, 267-square-metre house, on a plot of more than 3 thousand square metres.

The apartment in Papa is therefore out of the question, as it is absolutely impossible that someone would put down a deposit or down payment of nearly half a billion forints for this property. We must note, though, that it isn’t too viable to secure a family house in Kotcse with a deposit or down payment in this order of magnitude, either.

The number of question marks is increased by the fact that the politician only listed 225 million forints in the relevant section of his declaration of assets in January 2020 and January 2021, and 348 million forints in January 2022.

As a matter of fact, Mr Gyurcsany’s ordeal to sell his real estate have been dragging on for years, but the actual transactions behind the many millions of forints – a sum that keeps growing each year – remain a mystery.

It is important to note that the villa in Szemlohegy Street (in Budapest’s lush and upscale 2nd district on the Buda side), where the Gyurcsany couple live, is owned by Mr Gyurcsany’s wife Klara Dobrev and her mother Piroska Apro, which means that according to the land register the former prime minister has nothing to do with the property, Magyar Nemzet writes.