Orban courts voters outside Hungary with grants, cheap loans

Beekeeper Daniel Ferencz inspects bee hives in a forest in Backo Petrovo Selo, Serbia, July 7, 2017, after a grant from the Hungarian government enabled him to buy a honey bottling machine, as well as bees and hives. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

CANTAVIR, Serbia (Reuters) - Antal Kracsun was about to convert a barn next to his house into a pigsty to make ends meet, when a Hungarian government grant gave his small welding business in northern Serbia a shot in the arm.

The 800,000-Serbian dinar ($7,600) grant under Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cross-border stimulus programme, for poorer, ethnic Hungarian regions in central Europe, enabled Kracsun to buy expensive welding machinery which would otherwise have been beyond his means.