Péter Magyar, the leader of the Tisza Party published a video message on Thursday accusing the governing parties of trying to launch a smear campaign against him by using Russian kompromat-style methods. He believes that the timing confirms that one of the objectives is to divert attention from the allegations contained in Telex’s investigative article from earlier this week, showing that the government was aware of the ongoing exposure of some employees at Samsung SDI’s battery plant in Göd to highly toxic materials, and chose keep the plant operating.
Magyar’s announcement came two days after a photo of what looked like a hotel room and a bed that had been slept in was published under the domain name radnaimark.hu with the cryptic comment: Coming soon! Márk Radnai is the vice-president of Tisza, and has been Magyar’s right-hand man from the very early days of the party. He said that he had nothing to do with the site and only found out about it recently when he tried to register the domain name and discovered it was already taken.
In the video message, Magyar said that he was making the announcement because he didn’t want to give the government the opportunity to distract the public from what really matters: the poisonings at Samsung’s plant and the state of the country’s healthcare system. He explained that it was him who spent the night there once in August 2024. As he said, he was invited to a party by his former girlfriend, and although they were no longer together, they ended up having consensual sex and later went out for lunch. Magyar also said that when they arrived at the apartment, there were several people present already, and there was “alcohol and what looked like drugs” scattered around the apartment, but he didn’t consume either.
He expects the illegally recorded materials to be manipulated in some way, but said his conscience is clear, he has never used any drugs, and is willing to undergo testing at any time.
On Friday, Magyar announced that he would file a complaint.
"Today, I will file a complaint with the competent investigative authority for the crimes of unauthorized collection of confidential information or unauthorized use of covert devices (Section 307 of the Criminal Code), the crime of prohibited data acquisition (Section 422 of the Criminal Code), and the misdemeanor of misuse of personal data (Section 219 of the Criminal Code) against unknown perpetrators," he wrote on Facebook.
According to Magyar, the authorities will also have to investigate who instigated and ordered the crimes. The leader of the Tisza Party noted that all who “contributed to this crime either as intellectual authors or executors, whether they are heads of secret services or other authorities, or even government politicians, will be held accountable for their actions before the Hungarian courts.”
Meanwhile, his former girlfriend said that she knows as much about this as he does, claims to have had no knowledge about the camera, and says that she is ready to take legal action together, because they are both victims here.
At the time of this article’s publication, the video still has not been published, but the reactions of governing politicians and those in the government’s orbit are beginning to indicate the hard-to-follow logic at play here. The openly pro-government conservative think-tank, heavily funded with public money called Center for Fundamental Rights perhaps put it most succinctly:
“How would someone who allows themselves to be lured into a party where there are substances that look like drugs be able to say no to Brussels when it comes to war or Ukraine?”
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