Lake Balaton, the largest in Central Europe, is known as the “Hungarian Sea” and attracts families every summer. But its freely accessible beaches and popular campsites are gradually being replaced by private areas.
Enough to make the local population grind their teeth, some seeing it as the influence of the nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, accused in 14 years of power of monopolizing entire sections of the economy with his close circle.
Peter Karpati has been selling ice cream for almost 40 years in the port of Balatonföldvar and has seen the 235 kilometres of riverside transformed with the construction of five-star hotels and residential complexes.
In front of his shack, the septuagenarian denounces “the greed that is gradually eating away at the lake and leading it to ruin.” “That’s what worries us,” he confides.
The city hall is “wasting money”, according to him, on “absurd” real estate projects. He himself, “human as he is”, agreed to move his shop in exchange for a big check, to make way for someone he describes as “a big entrepreneur of the Orbán system”.
There are 2.8 million visitors each year, the vast majority of them Hungarians. But statistics show a decline in overnight stays in June over the year even though total spending has increased, against a backdrop of gentrification of the lake and soaring prices.
50 properties
The anti-corruption NGO K-Monitor lists more than 50 properties owned by businessmen close to Mr Orbán through complex arrangements.
AFP, which managed to reach the prime minister’s son-in-law, Istvan Tiborcz, by telephone, was unable to independently verify the current state of his assets.
Denouncing “misleading allegations” about him, he confirmed that he had made investments around the lake in the past, but says he no longer owns anything there today.
The government, for its part, distributes funds for tourism development projects. And it does not hesitate to endorse legislative changes to allow the construction of controversial programs, accuses Karoly Herenyi, president of an association that fights to preserve the area.
On a popular beach, it shows an unfinished marina due to a legal battle.
The courts have stopped the construction site twice, citing the lack of public consultation and environmental impact assessment. But the municipality, led by the ruling Fidesz party, changed local regulations and work was allowed to restart.
Laszlone Szabo, a 46-year-old schoolteacher, complains that “this port blocks the view a bit” and encroaches on their holiday destination. “Where we have spent our summers for years and where the children grew up,” she says, adding that she has signed a petition to protest.
The town hall did not respond to AFP’s requests.
“New aristocracy”
“If you can change the law at will, then no beach in Balaton is safe,” warns Mr Herenyi.
He sees in the current transformations “a strong political will to bring about a new aristocracy”, as was the case 100 years ago when the place began to become popular.
A holiday resort during the communist period for USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban President Fidel Castro, Lake Balaton has seen the rise of many Soviet-style buildings.
But after the democratic transition in the 1990s, the authorities promised to put a stop to the real estate fever… which has resumed with renewed vigor in recent years.
A glimmer of hope for activists keen to preserve affordable family tourism, Fidesz lost ground in the June municipal elections.
In the town of Keszthely, nicknamed the capital of Balaton, the party was defeated at the polls for the first time since 2006.
New mayor Gergely Toth, a 54-year-old alternative economist, has promised to listen and ensure “sustainable development.”
When he takes office in October, his first action will be symbolic: he will dismantle a gate erected by a property developer to block public access to the local beach.
An illegal practice that is now common on the shores of Lake Balaton.