Fidesz speaker to secret services: opposition is biggest threat to national security

László Kövér, speaker of the Hungarian parliament, said in a speech to the country’s intelligence community in February 2020 that the opposition was the biggest threat to the country’s national security, Telex reported based on audiotapes leaked to Direkt36.

Addressing the current and former heads of the Hungarian civilian national security services on 28 February 2020, Kövér said: the Hungarian political class “lacks a unified understanding of the state and the nation”.

As can be heard on the audio recording obtained by investigative outlet Direkt36, in Kövér’s view: “there are two, practically mutually exclusive visions of state and nation within Hungarian politics.”

Referring to Fidesz, he said that “a part of the Hungarian political class thinks, believes and works for a self-determining state and a self-conscious nation”. He went on to say that “the other part of the political class acts in the political tradition of a self-abandoning state and a self-mortifying nation”.

“I consider this political situation to be the most dangerous national security threat facing Hungary today,” he added.

It was precisely in the “present and future leaders and staff of the services”, Kövér added, that he had the greatest confidence to protect the country from the threat.

The united opposition issued a statement on Saturday (27 November), calling for László Kövér to resign from his post. In their opinion, the speaker “incites against the united opposition in a manner reminiscent of the darkest dictatorships and exerts political pressure on secret service leaders”.

(Vlagyiszlav Makszimov | EURACTIV.com with Telex)