The closure was considered by the political left to be the work of governing party Fidesz acting behind the scenes. Alleged meetings between prime minister Viktor Orbán and Mediaworks owner Heinrich Pecina over the transfer of "Népszabadság" were reported as early as June. Contrary to the owner's assertion of unprofitability, portal 'The Budapest Beacon' commented that after the previous losses, the paper turned a profit of HUF 130 million (USD 480,000) in 2015, but does not provide any source or proof for this information. Heinrich Pecina, the owner of the Mediaworks Hungary Zrt said that the decision was based merely on a financial basis: in the last few years the "Népszabadság" had a 5 billion Forints loss in total. He also added that he had offered to sell the "Népszabadság" to the Hungarian Socialist Party, but this later "had no courage to buy it".