From the 2026 budget audit
600 millió Ft to mark a medieval royal summit — from compulsory tax.
The 700th anniversary of the 1335 Visegrád meeting of Central European kings, funded as a state line item rather than by the historical and civic organisations that normally mark such occasions.
About 155 Ft per taxpayer — 600.0 millió Ft total, one-off in 2026. Smaller than the Mohács 500 line, but the mechanism is identical.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: official commemorative events marking a 14th-century royal congress. The unseen: the taxpayer funding a discretionary officeholder allocation for a commemoration that historical associations and municipalities in Visegrád, Esztergom, and across the region already organise and celebrate without state compulsion.
Objection
"600 millió Ft is a small amount for an internationally significant anniversary."
Answer
The size of a discretionary allocation is not what makes it legitimate or not. A sum decided by officeholders, with recipients chosen at official discretion, for an anniversary whose marking is already handled by voluntary civil institutions — is a pattern that holds whether the number is 600 millió or 7.2 milliárd. The principle is the same; the line should be cut on the same grounds.
Share if you think civic organisations, not budget lines, should mark historical anniversaries.
The analyst's verdict
Visegrád 700 commemorative year and related developments
Rationale
This line funds the "Visegrád 700" commemorative year and its related developments. The analysis is the same as for the Mohács 500 line: a commemorative-year programme is a discretionary allocation to mark an anniversary, with recipients chosen at official discretion, no rights-protection function, no constitutional precondition, and no dependency chain. The line is smaller, but the size of a line is not the criterion — the mechanism is, and the mechanism is identical. The line is eliminated in the 2026 cycle; the marking of the anniversary is left to the historical associations, municipalities, and sponsors that fund such commemorations voluntarily.
Transition mechanism
Eliminate in the 2026 budget cycle. The capital-purpose framing means no permanent personnel are attached; the saving is the full 600.0 millió Ft.
Affected groups
The organisations and contractors that would have received commemorative-year funding. The commemoration continues to whatever extent the voluntary and municipal sector chooses to fund it.
Free Society Institute
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