Peter Magyar, leader of Hungary's opposition party Tisza, has accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of inviting Russian military intelligence operatives into the country to manipulate the outcome of upcoming elections, Magyar announced on Facebook.
"Several weeks ago, representatives of Russian military intelligence arrived in Budapest with the aim and task of influencing the results of Hungarian elections," Magyar wrote. "The same thing they did earlier in Moldova." He is demanding their immediate expulsion.
Magyar drew a stark historical parallel, stating that Orbán is the first Hungarian leader since former Prime Minister János Kádár to have invited Russians into the country — a reference that places Orbán in the company of a Soviet-era communist ruler.
Framing the situation as an act of desperation, Magyar described the alleged interference as "an absolutely unprecedented case in which a government on the verge of collapse is attempting to influence Hungarian elections through external interference in its own favour." He called on Orbán to "immediately cease these actions and expel from Hungary the Russian secret agents who arrived under diplomatic cover."
Magyar also demanded the convening of the National Security Committee and a full briefing on the matter. Positioning himself as a government-in-waiting, he stated: "As a future head of government, I demand immediate information on what intelligence the Hungarian government has received from allied country services about Russian interference, and why it has not yet taken response measures against these unprecedented Russian actions."
The accusations arrive against a backdrop of independent reporting. Investigative journalists, working alongside European security services, have established that Vladimir Putin tasked a group of political technologists and Russian military intelligence with interfering in Hungary's parliamentary elections in April to secure Orbán's victory, according to the report.
Magyar closed with a positioning statement aimed at both domestic and international audiences, saying Hungary needs leadership that will not expose the country to threats from the East, "whether from Putin or from Zelenskyy," adding: "It is in Hungary's interest to remain a stable, predictable partner that allies consider reliable."
The statement also follows recent remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who expressed hope that Orbán's party would lose the elections, after which, he said, normalization of relations with Hungary would become possible. Zelenskyy also warned, in an apparent reference to Orbán, that if the EU credit continues to be blocked, "the address of this person" would be passed to Ukraine's Armed Forces.
Magyar leads Tisza, the first party to seriously challenge Orbán's Fidesz in over a decade. Orbán, in power since 2010, has maintained close ties with Moscow while blocking EU support for Ukraine.
