Hungary’s Foreign Minister Anita Orbán has filed a criminal complaint over the use of private and military aircraft for official trips during the tenure of her predecessor, Péter Szijjártó.
Billions in additional costs alleged
Orbán said an internal review of the Foreign Ministry had uncovered serious irregularities and alleged that the routine use of chartered aircraft from 2022 onwards may have caused significant financial damage to the state. She says the ministry increasingly replaced scheduled commercial flights with private or military aircraft even though the number and nature of diplomatic engagements had not changed significantly.
She estimated that private flights between 2022 and 2026 cost around HUF 4 billion (currently more than EUR 10.9 million) more than travelling on scheduled services. This figure, she stressed, does not include the cost of military aircraft, meaning the total could be higher.
According to FM Orbán, they haven’t even considered cheaper options
Orbán also claimed that aircraft were chartered for relatively short journeys to cities including Bratislava, Vienna and Belgrade, where travelling by car or train would have taken only a few hours. She said investigators found no evidence that cheaper travel options had been systematically considered before individual journeys, even though these private flights should have not been considered as an opportunity, according to the policies of the ministry, writes ATV.
On that basis, Orbán said she believed the circumstances raised suspicions of mismanagement causing particularly significant financial damage and potentially involved responsibility among the ministry’s former senior leadership.
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Fidesz calls complaint ‘frivolous’
The Fidesz parliamentary group rejected the allegations, calling the complaint frivolous and insisting that Szijjártó’s flights complied fully with the relevant government regulations. The party argued that the former foreign minister’s travel schedule was organised efficiently, claiming that Szijjártó frequently travelled overnight so that he could conduct meetings during the day.
It also said he returned home immediately after official programmes rather than unnecessarily extending his stays abroad. Fidesz further defended Szijjártó’s record as foreign minister, pointing to what it described as record levels of investment and job creation during the period.
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Szijjártó’s flights have long been controversial
The former foreign minister’s use of private aircraft has attracted media scrutiny for years. According to figures previously published by the Foreign Ministry, 53 private-jet journeys were made for Szijjártó over four years at a reported cost of HUF 4.87 billion (more than EUR 13.3), writes HVG.hu.
The issue has also been complicated by disputes over access to travel-cost information, with the government previously changing legislation concerning the disclosure of such data. The latest complaint is therefore likely to reignite a long-running political dispute over the cost and transparency of Szijjártó’s official travel. Any criminal responsibility, however, remains to be established.
