Departing National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) president László Majtényi on Friday announced that he will not sign the contracts of recent radio frequency tender winners Advenio and FM1 consortium.

“The Fidesz and Socialist media authority members who helped their bids to win should sign the contracts,” Majtényi told Kossuth Rádió on Friday. Majtényi resigned his post on Thursday, effective November 30.

The US embassy told Népszabadság in a statement that they were very disappointed by the ORTT decision, and shared Majtényi’s frustration. The embassy added that it will monitor any new developments in court and in EU governing bodies.

Sláger - which last week became one of the two radio stations to lose the frequency it had held since 1997 - is owned by US investors.

Népszabadság wrote on Saturday that the US ambassador had lobbied Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, while officials from the EBRD - present in the ownership structure of the other tender loser Danubius - had also put pressure on Bajnai during his recent tour of Europe.

Free Democrat caucus leader János Kóka sent open letters to Socialist caucus leader Attila Mesterházy and Fidesz caucus leader Tibor Navracsics on Friday, asking them to ensure that their parties support the establishment of an investigative commission at a special House committee meeting today.

Fidesz spokesman Péter Szíjjártó called Kóka’s proposal “hardly befitting democracy”.

Mesterházy also parried the request, saying “the ORTT is an independent media authority and its decisions are sovereign”.

Far-right Jobbik said it would not shed any “crocodile tears” over the demise of Sláger and Danubius; “two symbolic bastions of liberal cultural poisoning”, but “views with concern another example of the Fidesz-Socialist grand coalition that has existed in the form of backroom deals for many years”.