The Hungarian Public Prosecutor’s Office carried out searches at the offices of Orbán’s Fidesz party
Hungary’s main opposition party, Fidesz, has stated that on Tuesday prosecutors carried out searches at the office housing its internet servers. The party claims that the authorities are attempting to shut down its operations.
Fidesz stated that investigators arrived unannounced at the centre housing the party’s servers, with the intention of seizing the entire communications system and database. The party emphasised that, in their view, there have been no similar incidents in Hungary since 1990, when the communist era ended.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar noted in a Facebook post that he was awaiting information from the public prosecutor’s office. Neither the public prosecutor’s office nor the ruling Tisza party responded to enquiries from Reuters journalists.
Péter Magyar defeated Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in the parliamentary elections in April, bringing its 16-year spell in power to an end. Following his victory, he declared his intention to restore democratic standards in Hungary, which had previously been involved in repeated disputes with the European Union over the rule of law, the fight against corruption and minority rights.
Since moving into opposition, Fidesz has repeatedly accused the Tisza party of using authoritarian methods of governance. In response, Tisza denies these allegations and states that it intends to step up the fight against corruption, which, in its view, was widespread during Viktor Orbán’s time in government. Orbán himself rejects these accusations.
The Fidesz statement does not specify where the searches took place. Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office in Bács-Kiskun told the publication 24.hu that the investigative actions are linked to an inquiry into the possible misappropriation of assets and other criminal offences at the National Cultural Fund.
Earlier this year, law enforcement agencies opened criminal proceedings against several current and former officials in connection with decisions to award grants totalling over 17 billion forints from the National Cultural Fund. Those under investigation deny any wrongdoing.
The investigation was launched following allegations that the National Cultural Fund had channelled state grants worth billions of forints to artists and organisations linked to Fidesz through a non-transparent allocation mechanism.
