Charges filed against staff member of Fidesz-linked CPAC-organizer center over post featuring swastika

The prosecutor’s office has filed charges against one of the staff members of the Center for Fundamental Rights, Zoltán Koskovics, for using a banned symbol of authoritarian rule, former MP Ákos Hadházy announced on his Facebook page.

The Center for Fundamental rights, which is very closely connected to Fidesz, describes itself as focusing on “preserving national identity, sovereignty, and Christian traditions amid globalisation”. Under the Orbán governments, the center was heavily padded with public funds, and its “flagship project”, CPAC Hungary became a gathering of right-wing politicians and influencers from all over the world, with Viktor Orbán regularly featured as the keynote speaker.

Last June, while the Budapest Pride was going on, which the Orbán government had previously “banned”, Koskovics posted a rainbow flag with a swastika superimposed on it on X. This prompted Hadházy to file a complaint. The former Zugló representative added at the time that although the homophobic message was foolish and offensive, filing a complaint against Koskovics was only possible because of the swastika.

The police initially refused to investigate the case, citing that the post had already been deleted and it was therefore impossible to know how many people had seen it. The prosecutor’s office, however, concluded that a simple Google search can reveal how many people had seen and commented on the post published on X, so they overturned the decision of the police. “After I reminded them that this information can be found at any time with a search that takes just a few minutes, the prosecutor ordered the investigation to be reopened, and charges are now being filed,” Hadházy wrote, adding that the institute’s geopolitical analyst faces a maximum penalty of 90 days’ imprisonment or a fine.

“Propaganda was one of the Orbán regime’s most serious crimes and most effective tools. And the propagandists must not be forgotten, despite many of them now insisting that they were merely following orders,” Hadházy concluded in his post.