The series continues as we report on developments following April’s historic election and on the steps taken since then by the Tisza government. This week, we cover the following topics:

  • Secret-police files: familiar names and an embarrassing error.
  • Director of the Institute of International Affairs dismissed – he had also worked for the Fidesz government.
  • Government causes major uproar with cultural budget.
  • Less money may go across the borders.
  • Poll of the week: a majority wants slower, but lawful and effective justice.

Sándor Lezsák was one of the founders of the Hungarian party called MDF at the time of the country’s regime change from communism; it was in the yard of his house in Lakitelek where the meetings preparing the transition took place, where opposition politicians held discussions in the late 1980s.

Lezsák later became a Fidesz politician and served as a MEP for the party until the 2026 election. His name also appeared in the state security documents published on Wednesday (4 November), which he immediately and vehemently protested against.

“Everyone who spreads this vile lie will be held accountable for it in court,” he wrote.

It soon emerged that his name indeed should not have appeared in the files.

On Thursday morning the Historical Archives of the State Security Services announced that Lezsák’s name had appeared on the website due to an IT error. In reality he was not a network contact, but a person under surveillance.

Fidesz politicians immediately seized on the case.

“Tisza, in truly neo-communist fashion, is lumping perpetrators together with victims,” reacted parliamentary group leader János Bóka, demanding an apology from prime minister Péter Magyar and the resignation of cultural minister Zoltán Tarr.

Magyar later publicly apologised to Lezsák.

A belated step

On 15 September the Hungarian parliament decided to make public, and searchable online, the list of people who cooperated with the communist secret services (the so‑called “network contacts”).

In the first phase, part of the documents was made accessible on the site nyitottaktak.hu, while the recruitment dossiers – from which the stories of those recruited can be learned in more detail – will be published by 25 February 2027, the Memorial Day for the Victims of the Communist Dictatorship.

Hungary is thus taking this step 37 years after the regime change, more than 20 years after the Czech Republic and Slovakia did so in 2004.

Those we already knew about

It was already known in the case of several well‑known public figures that they had cooperated with the secret services or had come into their sights.

One such person was Nobel Prize‑winning biologist Katalin Karikó, developer of Pfizer’s vaccines, about whom it emerged in 2021 that state security had recruited her. At the time Karikó said she had been recruited under threat, but had not reported on anyone.

It had also long been known that other politicians had been recruited: among them József Torgyán, former president of the Independent Smallholders’ Party, who in 1998 was Viktor Orbán’s coalition partner, and István Csurka, who led the far‑right party called MIÉP.

The files also contain the name of György Nógrádi, one of Fidesz’s best‑known geopolitics experts, who often appears in Slovakia and was previously a guest at MKP (the party of the Hungarians living in Slovakia) campaign events. Nógrádi denies having been an agent.

New names appear too

On Wednesday (4 November) the whole of Hungary was feverishly browsing the site nyitottaktak.hu to see which familiar names might surface.

There were indeed some surprises.

By Thursday the lists had produced the names of several television personalities, singers, artists and other public figures. One of the best‑known is István Vágó, who for decades hosted popular quiz shows and was regarded as one of the most erudite figures on Hungarian television.

The list also includes Tibor Dévényi, one of the first Hungarian DJs, who for decades hosted the popular children’s programme Three Wishes on public television. The Fidesz‑adjacent singer Róbert Szikora is likewise among the well‑known names; he has denied having ever reported on anyone.

Among those on the list there is a sitting Constitutional Court judge (András Patyi), a former ambassador to Washington (András Simonyi), and even a former central bank governor (György Surányi).

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