Orbán: I have instructed the Minister of Justice to immediately examine the information regarding the wiretapping of Péter Szijjártó

“The wiretapping of a government official is a serious attack against Hungary. I have instructed the Minister of Justice to immediately examine the information regarding the wiretapping of Péter Szijjártó”—Viktor Orbán posted on Facebook on Monday morning after the pro-government press reported that Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó may have been wiretapped.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has been briefing the Russians about his EU meetings. The American paper’s article, however, makes no mention of Szijjártó being wiretapped, and no public, credible source has yet corroborated what Orbán claims in his post.

The minister called the claims in the Washington Post article “preposterous conspiracy theories”- among other things, the article suggested that Russian intelligence services were planning to turn the Hungarian campaign around by staging an assassination attempt against Viktor Orbán.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also reacted to the claims in the Washington Post article, writing: “The news that Orbán’s people are providing Moscow with detailed briefings on the meetings of the Council of the European Union should come as no surprise to anyone. We have suspected this for a long time.” To this, Szijjártó responded by saying that Tusk should come to Hungary instead so that he could openly support the opposition.

Péter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza Party also reacted to the news: “The fact that the Hungarian Foreign Minister, a close friend of Sergey Lavrov, reports to the Russians almost minute by minute on every EU meeting is outright treason,” he said.