Hungarian Parliament votes to abolish Sovereignty Protection Office

At an extraordinary session on Tuesday, with 135 in favor, 44 against, and 6 abstentions, Hungarian Parliament passed the bill which abolishes the Sovereignty Protection Office. Fidesz–KDNP representatives did not support the bill, while the Mi Hazánk faction abstained. The amendment to the Fundamental Law necessary for this had previously been adopted by Parliament. The bill, proposed by Márton Melléthei-Barna, a representative of the Tisza Party, begins as follows:

“Parliament has found that the Sovereignty Protection Office is not performing any real public function; its establishment was motivated purely by political considerations and interests.”

The proposal states that the true purpose of the Sovereignty Protection Office was to “exert pressure on citizens, certain organizations and media outlets for political purposes,” and that it must be dissolved because such activity is “not desirable in a constitutional democracy.”

The explanatory memorandum states that, in order to restore the rule of law, it is important to abolish institutions such as the Sovereignty Protection Office, which “have no real function within the system of public law; they merely drain public funds and serve to harass citizens and infringe upon their rights.” It is further detailed here that the SPO's sole function was to intimidate citizens, members of the press, civil society organizations, and opposition parties. The statement concludes by asserting that

the Sovereignty Protection Office did not protect Hungary’s sovereignty in any way, but instead “played a leading role in supporting the autocratic exercise of power.”

The law will take effect on the fifteenth day after its promulgation, at which time the Sovereignty Protection Office will immediately be dissolved. Once the law enters into force, all ongoing proceedings initiated by the office will be terminated, as will the terms of office of Tamás Lánczi, the president of the Sovereignty Protection Office, and the vice presidents. The official legal successor to the organization will be the Ministry of Justice, led by Márta Görög. In line with the amendment made by the legislative committee, the ministry will not continue the office’s work in any form, with the final version of the bill also stipulating that

Tamás Lánczi and his deputies will not receive severance pay, and they must submit a final financial disclosure statement within fifteen days of the law taking effect.

The Sovereignty Protection Office, established by the Orbán government began operations in 2024. Tamás Lánczi, who was entrusted with leading the organization, was previously known for the infamous 2018 article published in Figyelő (where he was editor at the time), which listed civil society activists and intellectuals as "agents of George Soros". It was also symbolic that József Horváth, Fidesz’s in-house intelligence expert—who started his career in the late Kádár era at the infamous III/III-4-b subdivision of the ministry of the interior—was also on staff at the Sovereignty Protection Office.

The Sovereignty Protection Office was supposed to investigate “processes indicating foreign interference,” but in reality, its main function was to portray civil society organizations and newspapers critical of the government as elements threatening the country’s sovereignty. This is why investigations were launched against the parties of the opposition coalition, Transparency International Hungary, and Átlátszó. Later, the Budapest Metropolitan Court found the office liable in the first instance for damaging Átlátszó’s reputation. In the lawsuit, Tamás Lánczi’s office argued that the “reports” they published were not facts but merely opinions, whose veracity could thus not be examined.

The Fidesz government rewarded the office’s work generously. Last year, they had an annual budget of HUF 6.2 billion to work with, of which more than HUF 1.4 billion went toward salaries alone. Tamás Lánczi earned HUF 5.4 million gross, while the vice presidents received HUF 3.7 million. The agency also spent hundreds of millions on communication; in 2025 alone, it signed a 1.2-billion-forint blanket contract with Gyula Balásy’s companies.

After the April 12 election, which resulted in Tisza’s two-thirds victory, the Office, which is supposed to protect the country’s sovereignty, remained silent for a long time. Tamás Lánczi broke the silence in a post published on April 29, he tried to substantiate his claim—that Fidesz lost the election due to foreign intelligence interference—by presenting a misinterpretation of a quote taken from a Telex article, and claimed that in his view, the protection of sovereignty and the SPO itself had been “under attack” from the very beginning.

Dissolving the Sovereignty Protection Office was one of the Tisza Party’s key campaign promises. Péter Magyar spoke about the bill to dissolve the Sovereignty Protection Office during Parliament's June 9 session. He described the abolition of the office as being in the public interest, and said that their goal is to ensure that “the nation’s leaders could never again turn against their own people.”