PM Orbán: Hungarian FM Szijjártó tapped; threads lead to Péter Magyar’s top diplomat

Hungary’s staunchly pro-government public media has suggested – on the basis of an audio recording not yet made public – that Szabolcs Panyi, a journalist with the investigative outlets Direkt36 and VSquare, passed on the phone number of Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to an unnamed foreign intelligence service. That agency is then alleged to have tapped the line, monitoring whom the minister calls and who calls him. On the supposed recording, Panyi is also said to reveal that he maintains friendly ties with Anita Orbán, the would-be foreign minister in the event of a Tisza Party victory.

Was Foreign Minister Szijjártó wiretapped?

An audio recording purportedly confirms an intelligence operation targeting Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó. The threads lead to the Tisza Party, with Szabolcs Panyi and Anita Orbán deeply embroiled, reported the government-aligned Mandiner on Monday. It claimed to have received a mysterious email from a sender styling itself “Fourth Estate Agnes”, with the message and attached recording revealing that Panyi – a reporter for the foreign-funded Direkt36 and VSquare – maintains links to foreign intelligence services.

Panyi handed over Szijjártó’s phone number to the intelligence arm of an EU member state, enabling it to monitor the Hungarian minister’s calls, Mandiner writes, citing the recording.

Panyi ‘close to Anita Orbán’, Péter Magyar’s top diplomat

Public media has not released the recording itself, publishing only a transcript excerpt. This suggests Mr Panyi served on Anita Orbán’s 2010 Fidesz campaign team – a “dark spot” in his past, in his view. The reason? He and Anita Orbán remain close friends, with Panyi poised to influence ministerial appointments or sackings should Péter Magyar’s camp win the election and install her as foreign secretary. The public broadcaster’s quoted transcript allegedly has Panyi refusing to name the foreign service involved.

The report leaves unanswered why Panyi needed to supply Szijjártó’s number to any foreign agency, given that the minister’s contact details were presumably hardly a state secret in diplomatic circles – readily available, say, in counterpart foreign ministries above a certain level.

The MTI news agency notes that Panyi works for the foreign-influenced Direkt36 investigative portal and Warsaw-based VSquare, having attended numerous training courses in the United States and boasting strong Democratic Party and intelligence connections.

PM Viktor Orbán orders probe

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Monday described Mandiner’s fresh article as “staggering”, alleging that “a Hungarian journalist actively collaborated in the wiretapping by one or more foreign intelligence services”. He called it especially grave that “the Hungarian journalist maintaining active ties to foreign services is a friend of Anita Orbán”. This, he said, illustrates how “a pro-Ukraine government would build a Ukraine-partisan foreign ministry”.

The wiretapping of a government minister amounts to a grave assault on Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared on his Facebook page on Monday. He added that he had instructed the justice minister to investigate the information on Szijjártó’s surveillance without delay.

Péter Magyar, president of the Tisza Party, on tour around the country, has yet to respond to the accusations from government-aligned media outlets or the alleged recording.

If you missed our previous articles concerning the 12 April general elections:

• Russian disinformation network spreads fake assassination and coup claims about Orbán
• Tisza Party vice president attacked with 8-inch-long knife at public forum