It’s been an absolutely astonishing day in the world of Hungarian politics; after all, it rarely happens, that the country’s wealthiest businessman and a close friend of nearly 35 years of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is humiliated in public, and then goes on a whirlwind expletive-laden media tour, in which he repeatedly calls Mr. Orbán a prick and claims that his former Fidesz and Christian Democratic allies may try to have him murdered. Clearly, Lajos Simicska had a perfectly public meltdown, after the editor-in-chief at the Magyar Nemzet daily resigned and then decided to take the paper’s entire senior management with him. The roller coaster events were sparked by Mr. Simicska’s comment in the opposition-friendly Népszava newspaper, in which he noted that his media empire would actively oppose and speak up against Mr. Orbán’s policies, especially those concerning a new media tax. He apparently also toyed with the idea of a 180 degree turn at Magyar Nemzet and noted that it should become like Népszava in tone.

Mr. Simicska learned about the fact that the country’s second largest daily, and the jewel in his media empire, no longer had a senior management from the press, since Gábor Liszkay, the former editor-in-chief, organized a coup against him, convincing two assistant editors, the editor-in-chief of Lánchíd Rádió and the CEO of HírTV to also stab their employer in the back.

The shady Fidesz oligarch who had a highly suspect stint at the head of the Hungarian tax agency under the first Orbán government and who has evaded the media ever since, went on a wild media circuit this morning, calling Mr. Orbán every name in the book.

“Orbán is a prick. And make sure that you write this down,” Simicska instructed a journalist from the Hír24 news site. He then said that it was now all out war with the Orbán government and that in a war, someone will die. The journalist asked if he meant this literally.

“Of course! Naturally! They can kill me, they can shoot me or a car might run me over. I too can be shot. Go ahead and publish this,” added Mr. Simicska.

Mr. Simicska also spoke with Index and told them that he has been put into a “crappy situation.” He then added: “I will go into the paper’s offices and I will fu****” fire everyone!” Following this, he once again called Mr. Orbán a prick.

The next stop was the Átlátszó news site, which focuses on uncovering the corruption of the Orbán regime (of which Mr. Simicska’s business empire has been an important pillar). “The Orbán government basically wants to destroy the country’s independent media. But naturally, our media will resist these efforts and we will fu**** sh** on whatever Orbán wants,” Mr. Simicska remarked.

“These men have betrayed me…I found out from the media that the entire management has left me, and I was left thinking about what the hell had just transpired,” noted Mr. Simicska in his most coherent interview of the day, which he gave to the liberal Magyar Narancs magazine. Mr. Simicska explained that Mr. Liszkay agreed to sell his stake in the Magyar Nemzet after the coup, but when Magyar Narancs asked about the details, Mr. Simicska had to ask a colleague who was close to the telephone about which of his many companies actually took over the shares from the former editor. It turns out it was a firm called Pro Aurum Zrt, which paid Mr. Liszkay around 100 million forints for his shares.

When asked about how much of this firm he actually controls, Mr. Simicska anwered: “Don’t ask stupid questions, I don’t know that by heart. I have an expansive empire with many varied interests!”

Mr. Simicska noted that he considers Zsolt Nyerges to be a completely loyal business partner of his. Much of the Hungarian media speculates that Mr. Orbán and his adviser, Árpád Habony are behind what appears to be an orchestrated attack against a former business ally, who fell out of favour after he began opposing the government’s plans for a media tax and especially after a government deal with RTL Klub this week meant that Mr. Simicska’s media empire might see its tax burden increase five-fold.

Mr. Simicska’s main pro-Orbán rival in the world of Fidesz oligarchs is Gábor Széles, the owner of the Magyar Hírlap daily and EchoTV. Mr. Széles lost no time in condemning Mr. Simicska today in public and in insinuating that his career was finished.

“Mr. Simicska is dangerous to nobody, but to himself,” Mr. Széles observed and then predicted that Magyar Nemzet and HírTV would collapse, with most journalists likely transferring over to the taxpayer-funded public television station, M1, which as of late has become more partisan and propagandistic than any major media outlet in Hungary.

In fact, it is worth noting that Mr. Orbán’s inner circle has floated the idea of pulling much needed government advertising forints from HírTV and Magyar Nemzet in favour of M1 and to the public broadcasting sector in general. This, even at the time, was seen as a clear attack against Mr. Simicska.

Mr. Orbán may have pacified RTL Klub, but it looks like he may have also awakened a lion within his own camp. The question is whether the likes of Mr. Habony are now able to put the fear of God into Mr. Simicska over the next few days, in order to dissuade him from his plans to go after the prime minister.