Hungary FM Calls Tisza Data Leak a Historic Scandal

Speaking on Mandiner’s program Stratega, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto called the leak of Tisza Party activists' personal data one of the greatest scandals in modern Hungarian political history.

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (Photo: MTI)

Responding to a question about Peter Magyar’s claim that "the Russians are not only in the pantry, but already in our living room, and perhaps on the Foreign Ministry’s servers and in the smoky rooms of the Carmelite Monastery," Peter Szijjarto stated: "There seems to be some misunderstanding here. It was not a list of Foreign Ministry employees that appeared on the internet, but rather the list of Tisza Party activists."

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (Photo: AFP/Attila Kisbenedek)

In my view, what has happened is one of the most serious scandals in modern Hungarian political history. What are the facts? There is a political party that wants to govern, right? That is why it is running in the elections. This same party entered its activists’ personal information into a database created with Ukrainian involvement. Let me repeat: a database created with Ukrainian involvement. And what has now happened? This very database has been made partly public, which means that it is also in Ukrainian hands,

the minister explained.

Peter Szijjarto warned that the authorities of a country at war may now have access to the most sensitive personal data of Hungarian citizens: "and let us, for a moment, set aside the fact that these are supporters of the Tisza Party. I want to emphasize this clearly: the state authorities of a country engaged in war can now access the personal data of Hungarian citizens."

The minister underlined that through this act,

hundreds of thousands of Hungarian citizens have been placed in extraordinary danger, and Hungary’s sovereignty has been placed in extraordinary danger.

 This means that a country at war could gain a direct means of influence over the sovereignty of another state, he said.

The fact that 200,000 Hungarians' sensitive personal data could fall into the hands of a country at war is a security threat whose gravity is not yet fully understood,

Peter Szijjarto said.

This is a scandal. And here all the threads come together: a database created with Ukrainian participation, used by a political party that clearly supports Brussels’ pro-war agenda. This means only one thing: that they are doing everything they can to install a pro-war government in Hungary. A government that could be manipulated in the interests of war. And that is where the real security risk lies,

the minister declared.

Cover photo: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (Photo: MTI)