Orbán accuses political rival of being a foreign agent – Is TISZA Party facing exclusion?
The Fidesz party in the Hungarian government has embarked on a very dangerous path: after 15 years of a two-thirds majority, Fidesz and Orbán feel that their victory in next year’s parliamentary elections is in jeopardy, and have begun to engage foreign agents against the Tisza Party and its leaders. They are saying this about opposition leaders without any evidence or concrete facts, using a method familiar to Vladimir Putin in Russia. What’s more, with a two-thirds majority, they could even exclude their biggest rival.
Orbán: Hungarian opposition party ‘active participant in secret service action against Hungary’
In an “unprecedented” incident, a Hungarian opposition party has played an active role in an operation of the Ukrainian secret services, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a video on Facebook on Tuesday.
Orbán said in the video uploaded after a meeting of the Defence Council that he had convened the body after “Hungary experienced an unprecedented attack from secret services in the past days.” “Ukraine launched the coordinated smear campaign against Hungary with the aim of making our referendum initiative on [Ukraine’s] EU membership impossible,” he said.
“It has turned out that the Ukrainians have activated their Hungarian contacts to carry out the operation, and have launched an attack against the Hungarian Armed Forces with the help of a Hungarian party.”
Orbán said the Hungarian services were prepared to see further operations by secret services until the referendum was closed, and pledged that “we will complete the referendum, because neither Brussels nor Kyiv can decide above the heads of Hungarians.”
Fidesz attacks without evidence but with strong communication
Orbán and his party have embarked on a dangerous path. As we see, the Fidesz party recently accused members and leaders of the Tisza Party, especially Péter Magyar, the party’s president, of acting as foreign agents. The leader of the Fidesz faction, Máté Kocsis, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also claimed that the Tisza Party operates with foreign support and influence, mainly from Brussels, meaning that it is not a genuine Hungarian party, but rather a “Brussels party” that is maintained and controlled from abroad.
According to Fidesz’s narrative, the Tisza Party also has Ukrainian connections that could threaten Hungary’s sovereignty, and the party supports Ukraine’s EU membership, which the ruling party believes would be detrimental to Hungary’s economy and interests. As for the latest spy scandal, when Hungarian agents gathered military information in Ukraine (details HERE), instead of explaining, Fidesz came up with the theory that one of the leaders of the Tisza Party, namely the former chief of staff, Ruszin-Szendi Romulusz, is a Ukrainian agent and an enemy of Hungary.
Read also: Fidesz accuses rival Tisza Party of being involved with Ukrainian secret services
According to Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza Party, Fidesz is resorting to increasingly harsh measures to undermine the party, such as fabricating accusations of opening offshore accounts or drug deals in order to initiate proceedings against it and prevent it from participating in the elections.
Magyar says that Fidesz is in a panic because it cannot defeat the Tisza Party in a real political contest, so it is trying to discredit them. Incidentally, the Tisza Party has stated categorically that if Ukraine’s accession becomes a real issue during their term in office from 2026, they will hold a referendum and consider the result to be binding.
As we wrote a few days earlier, Péter Magyar shared a secret voice recording, the defence minister talked about moving into phase 0 of the road to war
Exclude the strongest opposition leaders from the election?
The Orbán government has appointed people to lead the Supreme Court (Kúria), the constitutional court, and the public prosecutor’s office, and they control two-thirds of parliament. The secret service operates under the government, and Fidesz also nominated the president of the republic, Tamás Sulyok, who signs every law passed by parliament without criticism. So there is no authority that can stop them; they only have to fear the “streets” if they resort to the final step and, after a campaign of intimidation, exclude their biggest rivals, the Tisza Party and Péter Magyar.
It is an interesting question how the Trump administration, which supports Ukraine, will react to the use of the label “Western agent,” as this clearly puts the Orbán government at odds with the United States and all EU countries.
As we wrote yesterday, Orbán said Brussels “threatens cutting community funding for those that protect the framework of nation states; if that does not work, it will thwart national governments, topple them and help to power agent parties ready to give up national sovereignty”, adding that “they are making an attempt in Hungary for the third time”. Details HERE.
Read also: Hungarian spy scandal in Ukraine: did Hungarian intelligence gather military data for Moscow?
Read more news about the Hungarian government.
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