Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has come under pressure after a report by The Washington Post alleged close contacts with Moscow during European Union negotiations. The controversy has been further fuelled by separate claims in Hungary that he may have been targeted by wiretapping.
The Washington Post reported that Szijjarto had regularly briefed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during EU talks. The article did not suggest that he had been wiretapped.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has ordered Justice Minister Bence Tuzson to investigate reports that Szijjarto may have been under surveillance.
Orban announced the inquiry on Facebook, stating that eavesdropping on a member of the government would amount to a serious attack on Hungary. He was responding to reports in pro-government media suggesting that the foreign minister may have been followed and monitored.
According to the website Mandiner, a recording indicates that investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi was to provide Szijjarto’s phone number to the intelligence service of an unnamed EU member state.
Mandiner also claimed that Panyi has links to the opposition TISZA party and to Anita Orban, described as a foreign policy figure.
The Hungarian foreign minister dismissed the Washington Post report as ‘crazy conspiracy theories’.
Tusk: report comes as no surprise
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacted sharply, saying: ‘The news that Orban’s people inform Moscow about EU Council meetings in every detail shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time.’
Szijjarto responded by saying Tusk should come to Hungary to openly support the opposition.
Peter Magyar, leader of the extra-parliamentary opposition party TISZA, said that ‘the fact that the Hungarian foreign minister, a good friend of Sergei Lavrov, reports to the Russians almost every minute on every EU meeting is pure betrayal’.
The Washington Post also reported that European intelligence services had obtained and verified a document suggesting that Russian agents had considered staging an assassination attempt on Orban ahead of the Hungarian elections.
According to the report, the aim would have been to shift the campaign away from economic concerns and public dissatisfaction towards issues of security and national defence. Such a development could have mobilised Orban’s supporters and strengthened his position.
The plan was not carried out. However, the report suggested that it reflected the high stakes for Moscow in Hungary’s political landscape and pointed to broader potential forms of interference, including social media campaigns and disinformation targeting the opposition.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the claims, saying, ‘This is another example of disinformation.’
(max, lud)