A new scandal in Hungary’s fraught election campaign has alarmed observers and prompted comparisons with authoritarian-era tactics. Investigative reporting says one of the country’s intelligence services tried to infiltrate the opposition Tisza Party to disrupt its election prospects.
On March 24, investigative outlet Direkt36 published allegations that the Constitution Protection Office (Alkotmányvédelmi Hivatal) — one of Hungary’s five intelligence agencies, which reports directly to the prime minister’s office — attempted since July 2025 to gain access to the Tisza Party’s internal systems. The report says the agency tried to recruit two IT technicians who maintained the party’s systems and, when recruitment failed, pursued a probe that involved seizing their computer equipment under the guise of investigating child pornography.
The story was followed by a long on-camera interview posted the next day with Bence Szabó, a former police captain from the National Bureau of Investigation’s cybercrime unit. Szabó, who had worked on online child pornography investigations, says he was pressured by the Constitution Protection Office to open a case and seize the technicians’ hardware. He alleges that after the equipment was taken, agents copied data from it without proper authorization. Szabó says he resigned shortly before the interview and was later dismissed, and that he became a whistleblower after his warnings that the probe was politically motivated were ignored.
The alleged operation is said to have begun in July 2025, by which time the Tisza Party had emerged as a serious electoral challenger to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Polling suggested Tisza was ahead of Orbán’s Fidesz and a forecast had the party winning the parliamentary election scheduled for April 12. There is no public evidence that Orbán personally ordered the operation; nevertheless, the Constitution Protection Office’s direct reporting line to the prime minister’s office has intensified scrutiny.
Last autumn the Tisza Party’s campaign app became controversial when personal data for roughly 200,000 supporters was leaked publicly. Government and Fidesz officials blamed Ukrainian developers involved with the app. Szabó’s testimony, however, suggests the leak may have been orchestrated by actors within the state apparatus rather than by foreign hackers.
The government has not denied the broad outlines of the reporting but has framed its actions as counter-espionage against Ukraine, offering few public details. At least one of the accused persons has been described by officials as a Ukrainian spy, though no evidence to substantiate that claim has been released. Over the weekend the government published a video on its Facebook page showing the interrogation of a 19-year-old by the Constitution Protection Office.
The reporting has been widely shared: the video testimony posted by Direkt36 drew millions of views. Direkt36 co-founder András Pethő said the revelations raise serious questions about the political neutrality and independence of Hungary’s state agencies and intelligence services. Political scientist Miklós Sukósd compared the episode to the end of Hungary’s communist-era state party, arguing the ruling party is refusing to relinquish power and is flouting democratic norms.
The affair has been dubbed by some as “Hungary’s Watergate.” Government critics have rallied around Szabó, while Tisza Party leader and prime ministerial candidate Péter Magyar warned that harming Szabó would provoke public backlash. Szabó portrays himself as an official who followed an oath to the country rather than to any political faction.
The state has responded with legal action: Szabó has been charged with misconduct in public office, and investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi — who reported on alleged secret ties between Russia and elements of the Hungarian state — has been accused by authorities of espionage and labeled a “Ukrainian spy,” a charge he calls absurd.
Prime Minister Orbán has not addressed the specifics of the case directly. In a recorded message he urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “summon his agents back home,” without naming anyone. At a campaign event on March 29 he made a belligerent remark about still having “a few bullets left in the magazine” to use.
The revelations have deepened divisions in an already contentious campaign and intensified debate about the independence of Hungary’s security services and the health of its democratic institutions. The government maintains its framing of the matter as national security and counter-espionage; critics say the episode illustrates how state power can be used to target political opponents.