An audio recording of a left-wing Hungarian journalist confirms that a serious secret service operation is underway against Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, reports Mandiner.
According to the portal, Mandiner received a mysterious email from a sender calling himself the Fourth Branch of Power. The letter and accompanying audio recording revealed that Szabolcs Panyi, a well-known anti-Orbán journalist who works for Direkt36 and VSquare, both funded from abroad, has connections with foreign secret services.
It is further indicated that Panyi would have access to the documents of a Foreign Ministry led by Anita Orbán (in the case of opposition Tisza party winning in April), and could make suggestions about who could work in the Foreign Ministry and who could not in the event of a change of government.
Most critically, the recording revealed that Panyi gave the phone number of Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to the secret service of a European Union member state, which thus had the opportunity to monitor the Hungarian Foreign Minister’s telephone conversations.
The revelations come in the wake of an article in the American Washington Post that cited an internal report, as well as Western intelligence officials, indicating that Szijjártó regularly consulted with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during breaks from EU meetings, essentially allowing the Russian Foreign Ministry to immediately learn what was said there. The article also said that a unit of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SZVR) raised the idea of a staged assassination attempt against Viktor Orbán as a way to help him win the election in April, although there have already been news reports that say these claims appear to be fabricated and may stem from Polish secret services.
In a post on X, the government’s international spokesperson, Zoltán Kovács, quoted Prime Minister Orbán as having said: “We are dealing with two serious issues: there is evidence that Hungary’s Foreign Minister was wiretapped, and we also have indications of who may be behind it. This must be investigated immediately.”
🚨 @PM_ViktorOrban: We are dealing with two serious issues: there is evidence that Hungary’s Foreign Minister was wiretapped, and we also have indications of who may be behind it. This must be investigated immediately. pic.twitter.com/TVMzbzwi1d
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) March 23, 2026Foreign influence has been a continuous concern in Hungary, as left-liberal actors have repeatedly sought to oust Orbán from power and install a leader more allegiant to Western policies, such as the war in Ukraine and LGBTQ+ ideologies.
