Hungary's ex-PM accuses Orbán of ties to communist secret service

Miklós Németh, Hungary's last communist prime minister, who headed the government in 1988–1990, claims that Viktor Orbán collaborated with the communist secret service in the early 1980s during his compulsory military service. Orbán and his party, Fidesz, reject the accusations.

According to the news site telex.hu, Németh says that Orbán, who served in the town of Zalaegerszeg, reported to the secret service on the behavior of other soldiers in his unit.

How Orbán and Fidesz responded

Fidesz spokesman Bertalan Havasi said that Orbán never cooperated with communist counterintelligence and was never recruited. According to him, Németh is speaking out to help the “newly minted communists” — the habitual label that Fidesz, now in opposition, uses for the governing Tisza party of Prime Minister Péter Magyar. “He keeps spreading the same blatant lies,” Havasi added.

Orbán himself wrote on Facebook that during his service there were attempts to recruit him, but that he refused to cooperate. He says the secret services later kept him, his wife and his fellow opposition members under constant surveillance, planting informers and installing listening devices in their workplaces, apartments and even bedrooms.

Secret police archives to open within days

The high-profile claim comes on the eve of an important date: starting 4 November 2026, the archives will begin gradually declassifying the files of the communist secret police and will publish between 60,000 and 80,000 names of the regime's informers and collaborators. In this way, the governing Tisza party will fulfil one of its campaign promises.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz