Vox, Spain’s far-right political party, confirmed it secured a €9.2mn loan from Hungary’s MBH Bank, a financial institution tied to Lorinc Meszaros, Hungary’s wealthiest oligarch and an ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The loan, used to fund Vox's 2023 parliamentary and local election campaigns, was issued in two instalments (€6.7mn and €2.6mn) after the party struggled to secure funding from Spanish banks​.

Party chairman Santiago Abascal initially withheld the name of the lender to protect the bank's reputation, but the details emerged after a report by El País. Vox has since repaid the loan.

Orbán’s support for Vox is part of a broader strategy to build alliances with far-right, nationalist parties across Europe. While a hoped-for "right-wing wave" failed to materialize in Spain's June elections, Vox’s departure from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group to join the newly formed Patriots for Europe coalition – co-founded by Orban's Fidesz – strengthened Hungary’s influence in European far-right circles.

This group now represents the third-largest faction in the European Parliament, with 84 members from a dozen countries.

This is not Orban's first foray into foreign election financing. In 2022, MKB Bank (part of MBH before the three-way merger) provided a €10mn loan to Marine Le Pen, the French far-right presidential candidate.

Critics argue that these financial interventions allow Orban to project his political influence across Europe, while Hungary itself criminalises foreign funding of political parties​.