Foreign Minister Anita Orbán is proposing to revoke 943 diplomatic passports that were not issued to diplomats automatically, based on their status, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The government last week instructed the foreign minister to review diplomatic passports that were not issued to diplomats automatically as a matter of right, Vanda Szondi said. Based on this, 1,131 diplomatic passports and 191 service passports were reviewed, she said. The foreign minister proposed revoking 776 diplomatic passports and 167 service passports, the Hungarian News Agency wrote.

Szondi said Justice Minister Márta Görög is working to determine, while ensuring compliance with privacy rules, to what extent the identities of those who received such passports can be revealed.

Yesterday, PM Péter Magyar said in Parliament that too many diplomatic passports had been issued, and that some had been given to relatives of politicians, which could not be tolerated.

Update: ‘Serious irregularities’ revealed concerning diplomatic passports issued by Orbán administration

“Serious irregularities” where discovered during a review of extraordinary diplomatic passports issued by former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, foreign ministry state secretary László György Velkey said in a video posted on Facebook on Wednesday.

Velkey said that during Szijjarto’s term nearly 1,500 diplomatic passports were issued at the minister’s discretion as opposed to one or two hundred in previous government cycles.

“Sports clubs, friends, a multitude of politicians in the second or third rank and their family members were granted diplomatic passports, and what is more worrying is that in many cases the beneficiaries were foreigners close to the government for business or other reasons,” he said.

“This was grave wrongdoing also involving great risk from the point of view of national security… These people were doing their dubious business freely as holders of the Hungarian state’s diplomatic passports.”

Under the Tisza government, “nobody will be granted a diplomatic passport in unjustified or inexplicable ways,” he said, adding that the documents so far granted “undeserved and without any foundation” would be withdrawn.

Velkey said the government would only issue diplomatic passports “in cases justified by the national interest” and “only for a justified period”.

Foreign Minister Anita Orban has proposed withdrawing 943 diplomatic passports issued to individuals who are not diplomats.

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Featured image: Facebook/Orbán Anita