Syrian plane in Budapest? Group leader of Fidesz responds

“Not a single word” of a story about a Syrian plane landing in Budapest is true, Máté Kocsis, the group leader of ruling Fidesz, said after a meeting of parliament’s national security committee on Wednesday.

Officials of Hungary’s secret services briefed the committee in detail about the “fake news spread by left-wing portal Magyar Hang” and Péter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza Party, Kocsis said on Facebook.

Syrian plane in Budapest: “Fake news”

He said the report about the Syrian plane had reflected the “structured, detailed falsehoods that are typical of the statements made by the head of the Tisza Party”, adding, at the same time, that “the problem is that they pose a national security risk”.

The secret services had to play an active role in managing those risks, he said, noting that the story about the Syrian aircraft landing in Hungary had made its way to several European platforms and social media, as well as Middle Eastern news sites. The story could therefore also spread among the opponents of the ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, he said, adding that there had been a risk that they could “carry out an act of retaliation in Hungary”. Kocsis noted that the Hungarian embassy in Damascus had been attacked around the time the story spread.

Kocsis said the secret services were still investigating the source of the story and looking into those who had spread it on social media. “This time, Péter Magyar’s lies posed a substantial risk to our national security and our compatriots,” he added. Kocsis said no Syrian aircraft had landed in Hungary, counter-terrorism force TEK had not been deployed to protect Assad, and no one had been made to sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement.

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