Activist exposes irregular state grants to pro-Orbán commentator Bayer

In a Facebook video released on September 20, activist and actor Molnár presented documents that question the handling of two National Cultural Fund awards to commentator Bayer. The first, a 3 million-forint grant in 2014 to Bayer’s former firm 1100 Év Kft., was supposed to be accounted for by March 2015 but the project stalled, leading to contract termination in July 2014. Nevertheless, the firm received deadline extensions approved by then-minister Zoltán Balog, and the outstanding amount was only repaid in July 2020 without interest.

A second 3 million-forint grant was granted in 2020 to Bayer personally, despite the absence of a publicly announced call, and the submitted work reportedly deviated from the original literary proposal to include political commentary. Molnár also highlighted that the completion declaration bore the name Endre Sipos rather than Bayer’s. He urged one outlet NKA leadership to review the grants and hinted at further investigations into other cultural figures.