Atlatszo.hu launches Hungarian Oligarchopedia

As far as we know from our prime minister, there are no oligarchs in Hungary. The people who oppositional MP’s claims to be an oligarch Viktor Orbán calls ’big capitalists’, who are helping the economy not to get into foreigner hands. In this case we think it is very much needed to offer a helping hand to indentify who or what an oligarch really is.

In our opinion an oligarch can be identified by the following characteristics:

–        he/she became wealthy by doing businesses with state institutions

–        he/she uses his/her wealth to control politics and/or decision making in purpose of becoming more wealthy and/or to take over more power in politics and/or decision making

According to Péter Uj, former editor-in-chief of Index.hu there is another very useful mode to help you characterizing oligarchs:

1. You say or write about a person that he/she is an oligarch.
2. If the person is not an oligarch then he/she will not say a word or simply calles you up to say ‘fuck off.’
3. If the person is an oligarch, he/she will sue you with a bunch of well-known lawyers; will call your mum, dad, your boss, your bank, the National Tax and Customs Administration. He/she will somehow force you to rethink your ideas, and to correct or delete the article.

In our Oligarchopedia we will use all the parameters listed above and will also set up an Oligarchometer by a 1 to 5 scale, measuring wealth and impact on politics and media. This will help us to create a rank, such as the lists of the 100 wealthiest people. Unfortunately these lists have always been ignorant to the parameters listed above. But from now…