Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is a true jet-setter, spending HUF 1 billion (USD 3.6 million) on foreign trips in the last two years, reports print daily Népszabadság. The data was collected by opposition party Együtt (Together) after an official query was made of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The paper notes that Orbán mostly travels within Europe but he embarked on a few expensive official tours as well.  He evidently placed greater emphasis on foreign policy in 2015, spending HUF 701 million (USD 2.4 million) on traveling, versus HUF 303 million (USD 1.2 million) in 2014.

Expensive delegations

Between May 2014 and 2016 the prime minister took 86 trips abroad, 14 of which were to non-EU countries, including 11 tours to Asia, two to the USA and one to Africa. He hasn’t been to any of the Scandinavian countries.

Not surprisingly, the most expensive trips were to Asia, including Indonesia (HUF 65 million, USD 230,000), Mongolia (HUF 64 million, USD 226,000), China (HUF 61 million, USD 215,000) and Iran (HUF 50 million, USD 176,000).  In addition to the distances involved, these trips were expensive owing to the presence of large trade delegations.

The biggest delegation consisting of 76 people escorted the prime minister to Egypt this May.  Seventy-one accompanied Orbán to Kazakhstan, 64 to Mongolia and 58 each to Iran and Indonesia.