Hungary’s Watergate: Secret service spied on opposition

As Hungary approached its election day, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration faced a major intelligence scandal. The country’s Constitution Protection Office, one of five intelligence agencies, is alleged to have sought to infiltrate the opposition Tisza Party. This revelation has intensified the political climate, leaving even seasoned analysts unsettled. Some have framed the incident as a revival of authoritarian tactics reminiscent of the Communist era.

The operation allegedly began in July 2025, with the intelligence service targeting technicians overseeing the party’s IT infrastructure. These individuals were pressured to assist in accessing internal data, which could be used to manipulate election outcomes. The Tisza Party currently leads in public opinion polls, positioned to potentially challenge Orban’s Fidesz party in the April 12 parliamentary vote.

Though there is no direct proof Orban authorized the probe, the Constitution Protection Office reports to his office. The government has not denied the claims, instead attributing them to a countermeasure against a supposed Ukrainian espionage effort. The investigation was first exposed by Direkt36, a Hungarian news outlet, in an article dated March 24. The following day, the same team released a YouTube video featuring a 90-minute interview with Bence Szabo, a former police captain.

Whistleblower’s account

“I swore an oath. I want to serve my country, not a specific group of people, like a party,” Szabo stated in the video.

Szabo, who resigned before the video’s release and was later dismissed, detailed the covert operation. He revealed that the Constitution Protection Office pressured his cybercrime division to investigate a child pornography case, using it as a cover to seize computer equipment from Tisza’s IT staff. Both suspects were unrelated to the alleged crime, but the agency feared their exposure could reveal the political agenda.

The hardware seizure enabled the intelligence services to copy data without permission. This ties into a prior incident in the fall of 2025, when a Tisza Party app leaked the personal details of 200,000 supporters. Orban’s government had blamed Ukraine, citing the app’s Ukrainian developers. Szabo’s testimony now suggests the breach was orchestrated internally.

Szabo’s decision to go public came after repeated warnings to superiors were ignored. He described the operation as a politically motivated abuse of power, driven by the goal of undermining Tisza’s electoral prospects. The video, which has drawn 2.5 million views, has sparked widespread scrutiny of Orban’s administration.

Investigative journalist Andras Petho, co-founder of Direkt36, collaborated on the report. He told DW that the story highlights a serious misuse of state resources. The scandal has raised questions about the balance between national security and political influence within Hungary’s intelligence apparatus.