Hungary’s First Man in the army, high-ranking officers out of it
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As we wrote earlier, Hungary’s defence minister, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, dismissed more than one hundred high-ranking military officers despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. Even government-close news outlets can only guess why. The opposition says the government’s aim is to send away pro-NATO officers, but experts agree that there are no pro-Russia ones in the army and the new generation are much more pro-NATO than the old, so that cannot be a viable explanation. Meanwhile, Hungary’s First Man took the oath as a volunteer reservist of the Hungarian Armed Forces.
Demokrata, a government-close weekly, wrote that nobody knows exactly why the defence minister decided to dismiss so many high-ranking officials. Heti Válasz wrote that the next round of dismissals is on the way, commanders value currently their subordinates. Those receiving 6 or more points out of the maximum 9 can remain in the Army. Demokrata guesses the reason behind the decision is that Mr Szalay-Bobrovniczky comes from the private sector and wants to shape the defence forces alike. The official explanation is that the old generation cannot use the advanced technologies of the new weapons.
These changes are good for Hungary. The military was too top heavy, had too many old out of shape soldiers and too many (19%) females but not enough combat soldiers.