From a SZDSZ civil war to suspicions of tax evasion - the pastor who was almost nominated by the left as head of state has already faced the authorities before.

We are writing the summer of 1996. Gábor Demszky had already been mayor of Budapest for six years, yet the SZDSZ mayor had to express an opinion on the case of his own party colleague, former member of parliament Gábor Iványi It was a serious internal match between Péter Győri, ex-SZETA (Szegények Támogato Alap) but at the Menhely Foundation, and the leader of the Hungarian Evangelical Brotherhood (MET).

What happened was that on June 26, 1996, the Social Policy and Housing Committee initiated proceedings against Iványi for "reasonable suspicion of a disciplinary offense arising from a public employee relationship" The director of the Budapest Social Center and Institutions (FSZKI), responsible for the care of the homeless in Budapest, was charged with

– that he accumulated a debt stock of more than HUF 10 million,

– that he did not take financial limitations into account in his work,

– that "occasionally - from a one-time benefit - he undertook a long-term commitment",

– and that he expanded his institution with an ambulance service and medical care.

As Magyar Narancs' report at the time , the disciplinary meeting held behind closed doors at the end of the summer resulted in two of the 13 accusations being found to be serious, and Iványi was merely reprimanded. With the right to the last word, the pastor announced: "I reject the whole case, as a conceptual case that evokes bad memories of the communist era" . He then indicated that he would appeal to the labor court.

By the way, the liberal weekly summed up the matter as follows - saving what could be saved: "However, the bureaucratic dragging of the person who perhaps did the most for the homeless in the capital is a very sad story, which on the surface is about the professional rivalry of SZDSZ social politicians. that not all homeless people can be helped."

There is something that isn't there, but it didn't go where it should

Jump to the present. a house search at Iványi's Oltalom Karitatív Egyesület, also on suspicion of budget fraud In the course of the criminal proceedings, it became necessary to search for and seize documentary evidence, so on February 21, 2022, NAV investigators conducted a search at the document storage locations identified during the investigation, i.e. 1086 Budapest, Dankó utca 9., Dankó utca 11. and Dankó utca 15. in the premises under no., NAV wrote in its announcement. According to the official justification, the tax office searched the Iványs' house because

- according to the suspicion, the organization regularly deducted the contribution from the workers between 2015 and 2019, but did not pay it ;

- the association has been acting illegally for years and has damaged not only the budget, but also its own employees ,

While the association admitted that it owes 246 million in contributions, the NAV communiqué states - based on the currently available data of the investigation - that the association pays its employees the personal income tax advance, the pension contribution, and the health insurance and labor market contribution, but did not comply with his tax declaration and tax payment obligations.

According to the suspicion, a total of three billion HUF contributions were not paid for almost 1,300 employees.

Billions instead of chasing, but that's not the point

After 2010, Iványi said on numerous platforms that the right-wing cabinets would make it financially impossible for him. Magyar Nemzet claims the opposite . The Oltalom Karitatív Egyesület, which is now "occupied" by NAV, has received two and a half billion forints in additional support from the Ministry of Human Resources until 2020. After 2019, its associations will also receive direct and indirect support from district municipalities. to mention two: the capital led by Gergely Karácsony , and the XVIII district .

Most recently, at the joint proposal of the mayor and parliamentary candidate Ágnes Kunhalmi, the Pestszentlőrinc representative body adopted a resolution, the aim of which is to allow the Iványi district school to operate there for another five years, for which the municipality provides the property for the institution free of charge. In addition, it was Sándor Szaniszló's initiative that the office should help the institution with 2 million per year from the church affairs fund for the work that, according to the socialist co-chairman, it "does otherwise instead of the state that is now punishing them".

He also likes to voice the persecution of the church of the breakaway Methodist minister. The church registration procedure had already started, and last year it was Iványi who announced in a press conference that after many years, the church he led got back the technical number 0444. Again, you can transfer to them a percentage that can be offered to SZJA churches.

According to his claim, although MET won a lawsuit against the Hungarian State in Strasbourg, in which it was declared that their organization was stripped of its church status in an unconstitutional manner, and that the withheld money is retroactively paid (the state also paid retroactively - ed.), however, not between 2017-2020, citing that the court decision only obliged them to pay retroactively, not to settle our church status.

Written by: Gábor Nagy Source: mandiner.hu In our opening picture, Gábor Iványi, source Facebook