Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who disappeared after the Fidesz partyʼs defeat in the April 12 elections, said he finds accusations of pro-Russian sentiment and treason against Viktor Orbanʼs government offensive.
He said this in an interview with Telex.
The publicationʼs journalists recalled how, before the elections , hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Hungary and chanted: "Russians, go home!", perceiving the parliamentary elections as a choice between East and West. Szijjártó was asked: does he not believe that his actions played a role in the fact that the majority of Hungarians began to believe that their country was moving away from Europe and closer to Russia?
The Hungarian Foreign Minister responded that he regrets that people have perceived it that way, because, in his opinion, it is not true. He says that in his position he has focused on building pragmatic international relations, including with Russia.
Szijjártó stressed that he condemns Russiaʼs war against Ukraine, but believes that the key task now is to end the war as soon as possible, and that is what international efforts should be focused on. He is offended by the fact that the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is called pro-Russian because they "have never served the interests of the Russians".
"I find the word ʼpro-Russianʼ unpleasant because it is not true. We do not pursue a pro-Russian policy, but a pro-Hungarian one. We build cooperation with each country in a way that is good for Hungary," Szijjártó noted.
He also rejected accusations of treason and assured that he had never passed secret information to the Russians. Although, on the eve of the parliamentary elections in Hungary, a group of investigative journalists published recordings of conversations between Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The first part of the leaked conversations shows that in 2023-2025, Szijjarto regularly contacted Lavrov and passed on information about internal discussions in the EU and Hungary.
In particular, during a call to Lavrov on August 30, 2024, the Hungarian Foreign Minister revealed details of a meeting of the EU Council of Foreign Ministers, in which he had participated the day before. Lavrov, in turn, asked Hungary to help lift sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
Now Szijjártó claims that at every meeting of the EU Council of Foreign Ministers, he openly talks about what he talks about on the phone with Lavrov and what the Russian side is thinking.
Also in the published audio recordings of conversations between Szijjártó and Lavrov, the Hungarian discussed with the Russian a plan to slow down Ukraineʼs accession to the EU.
Separately, Szijjártó stated in an interview that the election results — the victory of the opposition party "Tisza" — correspond to the will of Volodymyr Zelensky. According to him, Ukraine was directly interested in the defeat of "Fidesz".
- It was after the election results were reported and “Fidesz” apparent defeat that Péter Szijjártó did not appear in public for about two weeks. The leader of the “Tisza” party Péter Magyar said that he was destroying documents related to sanctions in the Foreign Ministry building.
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