Hungarians fume over revealing tobacco scandal

When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban swept to power in 2010, one of the many things he promised was to clean up government and root out graft.

But three years on, a shake-up of the sale of cigarettes, of all things, has turned into a scandal that has convinced many Hungarian voters that a culture of corruption remains very much alive.

Originally, in 2012, the slashing of the number of outlets allowed to sell tobacco products from 42,000 — including petrol stations and supermarkets — to just 7,000 “National Tobacco Shops” run under a state monopoly was billed as a noble attempt to stub out teenage smoking.

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