In a dimly lit television studio, one of Hungary’s richest men is on the verge of tears. It is early May, weeks after the general election that ended Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power, and the advertising mogul Balásy Gyula has an announcement to make.
Gyula tells the interviewer that he has just surrendered his businesses to the state, along with a chunk of his private savings. He has even brought along a notarised deed – a legal document setting out the change of ownership.
“In the current situation, I don’t think that our group of companies has a future,” he says.
Gyula was among the most prominent beneficiaries of the Orbán era. His companies operated a network of poster sites known as the blue billboards, on which a succession of figures from the financier George Soros to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, were designated as public enemies, in propaganda campaigns paid for by the state.
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The wealth tax debate is a global one, with the government in Brazil and trade unions in California pushing for legislation. In the UK the Green party and many Labour MPs back the idea. In France the socialist president François Mitterrand introduced the Impôt sur les Grandes Fortunes in 1982, only for it to be repealed under Emmanuel Macron. Last year the French parliament came very close to reinstating the levy, and it is likely to be a big talking point in next year’s presidential election. For now, however, Hungary looks set to move first. » | Juliette Garside | Tuesday, June 2, 2026
