As Hungary approaches its highly anticipated parliamentary elections on April 12, a political earthquake has shaken the nation. Dubbed by observers as the most severe political scandal since the fall of communism in 1989, new revelations suggest that state intelligence services were weaponized against the leading opposition faction, the Tisza party.
The controversy centers on the Constitutional Protection Office (AH), Hungary's domestic intelligence agency. According to investigative reports, the AH attempted to recruit IT professionals managing the Tisza party's digital infrastructure as early as July 2025. At the time, Tisza had emerged as a formidable challenger to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ruling Fidesz party.
When the initial recruitment efforts failed, the intelligence apparatus allegedly resorted to extreme measures. The scandal was brought to light by the Hungarian investigative portal Direkt36 on March 24, 2026, and subsequently corroborated by a high-profile whistleblower: Bence Szabó, a former senior investigator at the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI).
In a detailed video interview, Szabó, who formerly headed the NNI's anti-child pornography unit, disclosed that his department was pressured by the AH to launch a sham investigation. He alleged that intelligence officials ordered his unit to target two Tisza IT administrators under the guise of a child pornography probe. The ultimate goal was to legally confiscate their computer hardware.
Szabó stated that it quickly became evident the suspects had no connection to child exploitation. Refusing to fabricate evidence, he reported the politically motivated overreach to his superiors. Met with inaction, Szabó resigned, was subsequently suspended, and chose to go public. "I took an oath," Szabó explained. "I want to serve my homeland and not a specific group of people, such as a political party."
The hardware seizure has cast a new light on a significant cybersecurity incident from late 2025. During that period, the personal data of approximately 200,000 Tisza party supporters was leaked from the party's official application. At the time, the Orbán government blamed the breach on Ukrainian IT experts who developed the app, framing it as foreign espionage.
However, the new evidence suggests the leak was likely orchestrated from within Orbán's own power apparatus using the data illicitly copied during the hardware confiscation. While there is no direct proof that Prime Minister Orbán personally ordered the operation, the AH operates directly under the Prime Minister's Office, overseen by Chancellor Minister Antal Rogán. The government has not denied the intelligence operation, maintaining instead that it was a counter-espionage measure against alleged Ukrainian interference.
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