The European Democrats, a centrist political group in Brussels, mocked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after images of anti-corruption protesters dressed as zebras outside a lavish estate tied to his family went viral.
Nearly a thousand people joined the so-called “safari tour” over the weekend at Hatvanpuszta, a historic manor in central Hungary redeveloped into a sprawling compound that critics say epitomizes corruption and impunity under Orbán’s rule.
The estate lies just a few kilometers from Orbán’s hometown of Felcsút, in an area dominated by properties tied to his wife and his childhood friend Lőrinc Mészáros, a billionaire who reportedly has a private zoo with zebras and antelopes.
“Zebras in Budapest? With Orbán, anything goes,” the European Democrats wrote on X. While Hungary faces economic stagnation, the group said, police “waste their time guarding exotic animals instead of protecting people.” It added: “Luxury for the few, humiliation for the many. Time for Orbán to step aside… preferably on a safari far, far away.”
Once a decaying 19th-century Habsburg property, Hatvanpuszta was bought by Orbán’s father in 2011 and has since been redeveloped into a complex with a library, guesthouse, swimming pool and rumored underground tunnels, according to local media. Security guards monitored Saturday’s protest but did not intervene as demonstrators carried placards reading “Filthy Fidesz” and posed in zebra costumes.
Orbán has dismissed criticism of the estate, calling it a “half-finished farm” unrelated to him. But leaked documents, drone footage and testimony from workers have cast doubt on that claim.
“Hatvanpuszta is not a farm, it is a monument to lies, corruption and the arrogance of power,” the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, quoted independent MP Ákos Hadházy, a former Fidesz member and one of Orbán’s fiercest critics. Leading the protest, he invited demonstrators to climb ladders and peer over the estate’s high walls, vowing to stage further rallies and publish new evidence about the site.
With Hungary under mounting EU scrutiny over rule-of-law concerns, Hatvanpuszta has become both a rallying point for anti-corruption activists and a symbol of growing frustration with Orbán’s government.
