Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó is not worried about further wiretaps of his telephone conversations being made public, nor does he consider it unusual that he discusses the content of EU meetings with representatives of other countries, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
When Donald Tusk posted on X that the news that “Viktor Orbán’s people are passing information about EU Council meetings to Russia” did not come as a surprise to anyone, Szijjártó accused the Polish prime minister of spreading “lies and fake news”. And although Szijjártó claims that what he did is “the essence of diplomacy,” the European Commission is awaiting clarification from the Hungarian government, while Politico reported that EU diplomats are considering excluding Hungary from sensitive negotiations.
Monday saw the release of an audio recording in which investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi discusses how European intelligence services wiretapped a conversation between Péter Szijjártó and Sergey Lavrov. According to Fidesz and the government media, Szabolcs Panyi assisted these agencies, but he says he had nothing to do with the wiretapping of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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