A different kind of false flag operation

There are more and more indications that the individuals who briefly unfurled a massive Ukrainian flag during the Tisza Party’s National March on March 15 are affiliated with Fidesz. According to information obtained by 444, the operation was coordinated by key staff members (the paper identified several of them in the photos they published) of the Fidesz-affiliated Digital Democracy Development Agency (DDÜ) from the top floor of an apartment building on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street.

The DDÜ is playing a key part in Fidesz’s election campaign this year: they are the ones who manage a network of more than 120 Facebook pages dedicated to spreading the pro-government narrative, (the fake profiles were identified by Telex, which were then linked to DDÜ by 444) work on boosting the visibility of pro-Fidesz social media groups, and on increasing the number of comments under the posts of Fidesz politicians. The agency, founded last summer (presumably with the aim of making it impossible to verify the sources of Fidesz’s campaign funding or how much it is spending on the election campaign) also manages the so-called Digital Civic Circles. These were brought to life by Fidesz last year in an attempt to raise up “digital warriors”, who could be the party’s secret weapon for winning the next election.

As previously reported, an eyewitness who also filmed the group on Sunday, reported the following to Telex:

“About 8–9 people appeared out of nowhere and ran into the crowd, forming a well-organized circle, and then, under the direction of one of them, they unfurled a huge Ukrainian flag, about 4–5 meters long, in the middle of the crowd. At the same time, photographers appeared, documenting the unfurled flag both within the crowd and from the surrounding balconies.”

According to the eyewitness, when he asked them why they were doing this, members of the group threatened him. “After 1–2 minutes, by which point many people started to try to tear down the provocateurs’ flag and told them to get lost, at the sound of a whistle, they gathered up the Ukrainian flag and hurriedly ran out of the crowd,” he added.

The day after the incident with the Ukrainian flag, one of our readers sent us a photo they took of a balcony on Bajcsy-Zsilinkszky street at 1.41 pm, shortly before the Ukrainian flag was unfurled nearby. Some of the messages on the banners hung from there read: “Welcome to the pro-war march!” and "Does Weber pay you well, Péter?" As our reader’s photo shows, the two young men in their photo strongly resemble those who later participated in the unfurling of the Ukrainian flag in the middle of the Tisza crowd. An examination of not only their facial features but their clothing as well confirmed with near certainty that these are indeed the same two young men.

444 managed to identify the two young men who participated in both activities. According to the publication, they are minors – a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old boy – which is why their full names were not published. 444 also discovered that one of them posted a story on Instagram at 6 p.m. on Sunday, in which he is standing next to Géza Balog, the chairman of Fidelitas (Fidesz’s youth organization) in Budapest, on the fifth floor of the building at 5 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street. The photo was clearly taken in the same apartment from which the banners were hung early Sunday afternoon. The president of Fidelitas, István Mohácsi later denied that they had anything to do with the incident.

Although the incident with the flag lasted only a few minutes, as the compilation of 444.hu shows, numerous pro-government media outlets (Origo, Hír TV, Ripost, and in opinion pieces, Magyar Nemzet, Bors, and Mandiner) were quick to report on it, noting that one could hardly expect anything else from a Tisza Party event, and contrasted this with Fidesz’s parade adorned entirely in national colours.

Several Fidesz politicians also shared the story on their Facebook pages, including Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, State Secretary for Health Péter Takács, and MEP Kinga Gál.

Minister of Construction and Transport, János Lázár was asked about the incident at a public event a few days afterwards. He said he was unaware of any organized activity at the National March and did not believe that Fidesz members would have made their way there. He also added that he did not consider it plausible that Fidesz members would have carried a Ukrainian flag on their shoulders. According to him, there would be no need for that, because he believes Tisza has never denied that they are on Ukraine's side. Lázár said that the Tisza Party always voted in favor of Ukraine in the European Parliament and they walk around in Ukrainian T-shirts.

Responding to a question about the incident put to him by RTL in Brussels on Thursday, Viktor Orbán said: “I’m not looking into anything of the sort, because I consider the very question to be ridiculous,” Orbán said in response to RTL’s inquiry as to whether, in his capacity as party chairman, he would investigate the role of the head of Fidelitas' Budapest division in the displaying of the Ukrainian flag at Tisza Party's event on 15 March. “There’s nothing to investigate” about members of the Tisza party “waving Ukrainian flags, whether they do it at home or in public,” he deflected.

The leader of the Tisza Party, Péter Magyar described the incident as “a provocation” and called on Orbán to come clean about whether he was the one who ordered the use of the Ukrainian flag at the Tisza Party’s event, and if it wasn't him, then who did it: Antal Rogán (Orbán's Cabinet Minister) or Balázs Orbán (the PM's political director and the head of Fidesz's election campaign). Magyar described the unfurling as “A real false flag operation,” in which, according to him, they sought to discredit the Tisza Party by hiding behind 15-to16-year-old children, but were exposed because of the Budapest chairman of Fidelitas, despite so many prominent figures from Fidesz posting the photo of the operation.

The article was updated after publication with Viktor Orbán's comment.