Our colleague spotted Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Dunakeszi on Thursday morning. The politician has not made any public statements since Sunday’s parliamentary elections. After his initial surprise at our colleague's appearance, the Foreign Minister added that at least this way it will be clear that he has not disappeared.
Szijjártó was the third pillar of Fidesz's election campaign alongside Viktor Orbán and János Lázár. Despite this, he failed to make an appearance at the party's election night event on Sunday evening, nor did he take to the stage behind Viktor Orbán during his concession speech; furthermore, he has not posted anything on his social media since Sunday, except for changing his cover photo to a Hungarian flag. He was then photographed on Monday afternoon by the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, confirming that he was in Hungary.
On Monday, while holding his first international press conference, Péter Magyar was informed by a colleague that they have received information that since that morning, Péter Szijjártó had been shredding documents connected to sanctions-related materials with his colleagues at the ministry. Meanwhile, Telex obtained a video recording, according to which documents were being destroyed in rooms 523 and 524 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. According to our information, other than Péter Szijjártó being present, Henrietta Balajthy, the political director of the Foreign Ministry, and Eszter Gyarmati, the state secretary for public administration, were also there.
In response to a question from Telex, the Foreign Ministry called this nonsense and outrageous, claiming that such a recording could not even exist, since Péter Szijjártó and Eszter Gyarmati did not visit those offices.
As previously reported, Viktor Orbán likely had a different role in mind for Péter Szijjártó in the campaign than the one he ultimately ended up with. In the final stretch of the campaign, he took the biggest hits when his phone conversations with Sergey Lavrov were leaked.
For more quick, accurate and impartial news from and about Hungary, subscribe to the Telex English newsletter!