Hungary’s secret-police files go online, with a mistaken Fidesz listing

Lezsák, whose Lakitelek home hosted opposition meetings in the late 1980s, protested the listing and threatened legal action against those spreading what he called a “vile lie.” Fidesz parliamentary group leader János Bóka accused the Tisza government of “lumping perpetrators together with victims” and called for Prime Minister Péter Magyar to apologise and Culture Minister Zoltán Tarr to resign. Magyar later apologised publicly to Lezsák.

Parliament voted on 15 September to make the names of people who cooperated with the communist secret services searchable online. Some documents appeared on nyitottaktak.hu on Wednesday, 4 November. Recruitment dossiers, which provide more detail about those recruited, are due to be published by 25 February 2027, the Memorial Day for the Victims of the Communist Dictatorship. Hungary is making the material public 37 years after the regime change and more than 20 years after the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which opened their files in 2004.

The records include names already associated with the services, as well as new entries. Nobel Prize-winning biologist Katalin Karikó said in 2021 that she had been recruited under threat but had not reported on anyone. Former Independent Smallholders’ Party leader József Torgyán and MIÉP leader István Csurka had also been identified as recruits. Geopolitics expert György Nógrádi, who denies being an agent, is named in the files.

Other names on the lists include television hosts István Vágó and Tibor Dévényi, singer Róbert Szikora, Constitutional Court judge András Patyi, former Washington ambassador András Simonyi and former central bank governor György Surányi. Szikora has denied ever reporting on anyone.